Rayo Vallecano boss Paco Jemez has criticised La Liga and its president Javier Tebas for their plans to restart Spanish football too quickly.
Football across the nation has been indefinitely suspended since the middle of March since the coronavirus pandemic but players returned to individualised training sessions a week ago after widespread testing for the virus was carried out.
There have been concerns that it may prove impossible to complete the 2019/20 campaign – which has 11 outstanding rounds of league action in each of the top two divisions.
However, the league’s authorities have continued to insist they are confident that the fixtures can be staged over the summer months and there is hope that football can return by the middle of June.
There have been suggestions that players will have to be quarantined – away from friends and families – for weeks at a time in order to ensure the virus is not transmitted while there have been suggestions that all players and coaches will need to be tested more than once per week.
“There is still no control over the pandemic. We are all eager to start but I am very afraid that we are wrong,” Jemez told Cadena Cope’s El Partidazo show. “What Tebas says seems too premature. We do not need to run into this.
“It is true that wanting to get all the decisions right is impossible, but I think there is time to pause, to bring all the groups together and make decisions by consensus. There are correct decisions and there are others that can be improved.”
Jemez also criticised Tebas for saying that there would be ‘zero risk’ in football’s return: “If Tebas is so sure, sign a document in case something happens, but he is not going to sign it because zero risk is impossible.
“We have no control over the pandemic. It hurts when they say we are privileged. I have already passed a test and I am healthy but maybe now I am infected. I do not want to take a test every four days when others can have none. I want to coach then go home.”
