Inter Miami helps food drive, signs deal with Univision
Inter Miami goalkeeper and captain Luis Robles returned to the team’s new Fort Lauderdale stadium Wednesday, but not to play soccer. He was there as part of the team’s COVID-19 relief effort.
Robles helped distribute more than 300 bags of food to families in need at DeliverLean’s food distribution event in collaboration with the Urban League of Broward County. The distributions will continue at the stadium every Wednesday throughout the coronavirus crisis.
DeliverLean collects nonperishable food items from South Florida homes to distribute to underprivileged families.
Robles was joined by DeliverLean CEO and founder Scott Harris, City of Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis and City of Fort Lauderdale commissioner Heather Moraitis.
“It’s a strange feeling being here in this capacity. When you consider everything going on in our community, it’s really important to have companies such as DeliverLean and our team stepping up to help,” Robles said. “It’s one thing to be in the community playing soccer; but it’s another thing entirely to be of the community. That’s a big part of who we are. I just hope for the families going through what they are that they can find some sort of relief in these meals. It’s a privilege and honor to be part of this.”
Robles then discussed what the team has been doing during the quarantine.
“Every morning at 10 a.m. we have a Zoom meeting, and sometimes it’s a workout with our strength and conditioning coach, or it’s a tactical session,” he said. “[Tuesday] it was a tactical session. It’s one way we are able to continue that team building, that camaraderie. Of course, it’s completely different. But everyone in the world is adapting to the circumstances. So, for us, every morning at 10 to be able to get together still allows us to be a team.”
As a board member of the MLS Players Association, Robles said he has been in conversations with league officials about how to go forward once things start to open up.
“We’ve been working on this new landscape, what’s on the other side, and there’s some things we really need to talk through,” he said. “How do we get back to playing? How do we get back to training? We may have to be creative, outside the box.
“The messaging from the league is they want to play as many games as possible. There’s a lot of things that have to happen, sorting through government mandates, testing, and the last part is making sure we can play meaningful games. They have to figure out how to do that. It may be very creative, out of the box. They’re doing everything they can to make sure the player’s health is considered, first and foremost, and that we can salvage our season.”
In other club news, Inter Miami announced Thursday that it has partnered with Univision Miami, a part of Univision Communications Inc., to broadcast its games locally on UniMás Miami 69, WQBA 1140 AM and streamed live on Uforia and Univision 23 apps for the 2020 Major League Soccer season.
The team will announce its full broadcast schedule when the revised Major League Soccer season is announced.
“Leveraging Univision to produce and distribute our local broadcasts across all of their local Miami platforms will help us deliver a top-class experience for the South Florida audience when we return to play,” said Inter Miami COO and sporting director Paul McDonough. “Univision knows our fans, our community and our league the same way we do, making this collaboration that much more impactful for our fans.”
The Inter Miami Univision broadcast team will include soccer analyst Diego Balado, reporter and narrator Nicolás Cantor, host and commentator Tony Cherchi, commentator Daniel Nohra, host and play-by-play narrator Ramses Sandoval and play-by-play narrator and commentator Luis Omar Tapia.
“We are proud to partner with Inter Miami CF to bring our South Florida community all the action from the pitch when the Herons’ inaugural season kicks off again,” said Claudia Puig, Univision Miami president and general manager. “As we all contend with the impact of COVID-19, I know that we can all agree that we’re looking forward to getting back to the activities we love –like watching our favorite teams on the field. When that day finally comes, Univision looks forward to providing world-class coverage and an exceptional in-game viewing experience across all of our platforms.”
Prior to the season being suspended due to coronavirus, Inter Miami had kicked off its inaugural season with two road games on March 1 at Los Angeles FC and March 7 at D.C. United. The team has yet to host its first home game.
This story was originally published April 30, 2020 at 12:55 PM.