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Rabat – The Spanish government authorized yesterday the resumption of the country’s football championship, LaLiga, suspended since mid-March 2020 due to the spread of COVID-19.
No games have been scheduled yet but the government approved the restart of training sessions.
“Hopefully football will return soon, it will be decided by the League and the Federation, but they already have our authorization to start individual training for team sports,” declared Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez during a press conference on May 2.
Spain will progressively resume daily life and sports events.
“As a start, we will watch the games on television, not in the stadiums,” Sanchez said, suggesting competitions will initially take place without a live audience.
The decision is subject to revaluation in the future to ensure public health and safety.
“We will backtrack if we find that we have gone too fast. Reviewing one of the phases will not be a failure for this territory,” Sanchez said.
The suspension of LaLiga amid the COVID-19 pandemic is not the first of its kind. The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) suspended last month all Champions League and Europa League matches “until further notice.”
European sports clubs have taken individual measures to safeguard their players. Real Madrid went into quarantine on March 12 after a player on their basketball team tested positive for COVID-19.
The Spanish club imposed the quarantine on their basketball and football first teams.
The Italian football club FC Juventus made the same decision in February. FC Juventus suspended training sessions and put 23 players in quarantine after three players for fellow Italian club US Pianese tested positive for COVID-19.
The resumption of LaLiga comes amid Spain’s gradual steps to loosen lockdown restrictions. While Spain’s lockdown remains in place, the country allowed some workers to return to work on April 13.
Spain has over 200,000 confirmed coronavirus cases as of April 20, but the spread of COVID-19 is receding, government officials have said recently. The European country has the second-highest number of infections in the world, second only to the United States.
