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Rabat – Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced today that the Spanish football league (La Liga) will resume play the week of June 8, after being suspended since mid-March due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I would like to inform you that with the Higher Council for Sport, we agreed to resume La Liga the week of June 8,” said Sanchez during a press conference.
The Spanish prime minister stressed that football is very popular in the country, but it will not be the only recreational activity that Spain will recover.
“Spain did what it had to do and now new horizons are open to everyone,” said Sanchez, indicating that time has come to resume a large part of daily activities.
The head of La Liga, Javier Tebas, said he prefers the league to resume activities on June 12, in a declaration to television channel Moviestar.
Tebas added that competitions will resume “when the Ministry of Health says so,” and that the program will be intense with two matches a week, given the delay imposed by the pandemic.
The Spanish government allowed the resumption of training sessions for La Liga clubs on May 2, which had also been postponed since mid-March.
The decision followed the Spanish health ministry’s approval on the conditions of respecting a strict health protocol in order to guarantee the safety of players and personnel.
“We hope that football will soon be back, La Liga and the [Royal Spanish Football] Federation will decide that,” Sanchez had said earlier this month.
Bundesliga in Germany
In Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel decided on May 6, with the heads of the German federal states, to allow the football leagues Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2 to resume matches starting May 16. This made these the first top leagues in Europe to emerge from the COVID-19 lockdown with official matches.
“We’ll all know after the first day of play why we like games with spectators much better,” said the Chairman of the German Football League (DFL), Christian Seifert, following the announcement.
The first match, a derby between Borussia Dortmund and Schalke 04, took place without spectators.
Players are also required to adhere to social distancing in their changing rooms.
Seifert said the DFL measures are the best plan possible, as “we won’t be able to keep 1.5 meters apart on the pitch.”
