La Liga has congratulated their German counterparts in the Bundesliga upon their imminent return to football in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.
The Bundesliga is set to be Europe’s first major league to return to action on 15 May, despite leagues in France, the Netherlands and Belgium all discontinuing their 2019/20 campaign.
Spain has been in a state of emergency since 13 March but last week, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez clarified plans to ease the nation back into some sense of normality as coronavirus cases begin to reduce.
The nation has recorded more confirmed cases of COVID-19 than any other country in Europe, with its count totalling 253,682 as of Wednesday, while there have over 25,850 deaths – behind only the US, the UK and Italy in global terms.
Players have subsequently returned to club’s training facilities this week to undergo coronavirus testing with a hopeful returning of training sessions by this weekend.
“From La Liga we want to congratulate the Bundesliga on the decision of its government to restart the competition from the second half of this month of May, as well as other leagues that are also reactivating in Poland, Israel, Turkey, Croatia, Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary, Denmark and Portugal,” a league statement read.
“This is very good news for European football, for the return to a new normal and for the reactivation of such an important economic and social activity.
“In Spain, it represents 1.37% of GDP, 185k jobs and €4.1bn annually in taxes.
“La Liga and its clubs continue working so that in Spain football can also return, on a path that started yesterday (Tuesday) and today with the medical tests prior to the return of training and that will not end until the return of the fans to the stadiums.”
As outlined by Goal, players were able to return to individual training session from 4 May with a de-escalation plan that will have four phases, each lasting a minimum of two weeks, and that should lead to some form of normality by the end of June – ‘gradually and asymmetrically’.
Phase 0: basic training for professional athletes
Phase 1: medium training and opening of high-performance centres
Phase 2: authorisation of outdoor activities with less than 400 attendees
Phase 3: return to the ‘new standard’, with no specific references to sport.
