La Liga to ‘Return Soon’, Says Spain PM Pedro Sanchez; League and Football Federation to Decide on New Schedule

Spain Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez expects La Liga 2019-20 season to resume soon after the government began easing coronavirus pandemic restrictions. But has stated the decision on the season return and resuming of training sessions will be on the league and federation. The government have given clubs the permission to start individual training sessions from Monday as part of the phase O – preparatory phase – after agreeing to La Liga’s plans of testing players for the covid-19 pandemic before they resume training. Although no date for the season’s return has been decided so far, La Liga, according to reports, is aiming to resume season behind closed doors in June. This Day, That Year: When Barcelona Thrashed Real Madrid 6-2 At Santiago Bernabeu in La Liga.

“I’m more of a basketball fan than a football fan, but let’s hope football returns soon,” Sanchez was quoted as saying by Reuters. Asked on the current situation and a possible date for the season’s return, Sanchez said “It will be the league and the federation to decide (when they return). We hope that leagues and federations will come to a decision soon. La Liga Might Not Start Before Summer This Year, Says Spain's Health Minister Salvador Illa.

"We already started to allow individual training sessions for team sports, we hope [a return] will come sooner rather than later but we'll see it first on television rather than in the stadiums, I'm afraid,” he added.

Squads are expected to resume training from next week after the permission was granted. First, they will train individually before training in small groups and finally into a full group training from May 11. But amidst all these, the clubs have to test the players for the pandemic. Squads need at least full training for two weeks before the season can resume.

Spain has been one of the hardest-hit countries by the coronavirus pandemic with death toll in the county reaching 25,100 after 276 more people died in the past 24 hours. The death toll globally has crossed over two lakh with over three million people infected by the deadly virus. In Spain alone, 245,567 people have been affected. United States have been the worst-hit country with over 67,000 people dead after contracting the virus.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on May 03, 2020 11:03 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).