Antoine Griezmann and Lionel Messi will probably have to give up the hug. – Kieran McManus / BPI / REX / SIPA
Building on the German example, Spain gave the green light on Saturday to a resumption of its football championship in the week of June 8, in reverse of France where the season was definitively stopped.
The return to competition of world football stars, in Barcelona with Lionel Messi, Antoine Griezmann and Luis Suarez, or in Real Madrid with Eden Hazard and Karim Benzema, is coming soon, even if the Liga has not yet communicated a calendar correct for the resumption of the championship. Its president Javier Tebas has favored the date of Friday June 12 for the first ten days, for the first meetings, while the championship has been stopped since March 12.
Aulas challenges Macron
On Saturday, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez gave the last positive signal: “The week of June 8, the resumption of major sporting and professional competitions, and in particular La Liga, will be authorized,” he said in a conference of hurry. Spain is therefore, after Germany, the second of the five major European championships to announce a resumption of the matches, stopped since mid-March because of the Covid-19 pandemic which forced Europe to confine itself.
Italian Serie A and the English Premier League hope to emulate the Liga and the Bundesliga. They depend on political decisions, while an announcement is expected in particular next week in Italy. In France, the Professional Football League (LFP) ratified the end of the season on April 30, Prime Minister Édouard Philippe having explained two days earlier when announcing the confinement exit plan that “the 2019- 2020 of professional sports, notably that of football, will not be able to resume ”. Tireless opponent of this decision, which potentially deprives him of a European qualification, Olympique lyonnais hailed the Spanish example which, “coming after that of Germany”, should, according to him, “allow to reconsider the decision taken in France too hastily. ” And OL President Jean-Michel Aulas to appeal to Emmanuel Macron.
Draconian health protocol
In Spain, one of the European countries most affected by the health crisis with more than 28,000 people dead, clubs have been allowed since the beginning of the week to train in small groups. Football League president Javier Tebas said he was “very pleased” with the Madrid decision. “It is the result of a lot of work between clubs, players, coaches … But it is very important to respect sanitary measures. We cannot let our guard down, “he said.
In Germany, the resumption of football from the weekend of May 16-17 was acted on May 6 by Chancellor Angela Merkel at a meeting with the presidents of regions, but the clubs are subject to a draconian health protocol , with regular tests and balloons to be disinfected often.
La Liga is giving itself until the end of July to play the last eleven days of the Championship. The health protocol provides, as in Germany, in camera meetings, with less than 200 people present in the stadium, virological tests for the players on the eve of each match and the temperature measurement before going up on the field.
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