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Julien Laurens examines La Liga’s approach to resuming league play with clubs returning to training.
The president of La Liga, Javier Tebas, has said that there will be a “zero” risk that the games will be played every day when competitive football returns to Spain.
Spain’s first and second division clubs have now returned to training, and the Real Madrid players are the last to participate in individual sessions on Monday morning.
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“The risk during the games will be zero, or practically zero,” Tebas told Movistar. “What I ask now is that we focus on complying with the health measures. If we stick to them, we will restart the competition with very little or no infection.”
The games would be played every day of the week to allow the remaining 11 days of the 2019-20 season to be completed in late July, and teams will have 72 hours of rest between games.
“I would like the restart date to be June 12, but we have to be careful, it will depend on society in general,” added Tebas.
Before the coronavirus pandemic, the games had not been played on Monday nights, due to a legal battle between the league and the federation over the treatment of fans.
The federation is not believed to be opposed in this scenario, as the games will be played behind closed doors.
Thebes said La Liga and its broadcast partners are testing various options to make up for the lack of atmosphere, including interactive elements for viewers at home.
“Since we won’t be able to have fans in the stadiums, we are going to have some really interesting new ideas when it comes to soccer broadcasts,” he said.
Before returning to training, the 42 teams in Spain’s two main divisions underwent coronavirus tests last week. The League said Sunday that five of them had tested positive, all being asymptomatic and in the final stages of the disease.
Although La Liga has not confirmed their identities, citing data protection rules, Real Betis goalkeeper Joel Robles confirmed that he tested positive.
The positive footballers will remain at home and will undergo further tests, being able to join their teammates when they have given two negative results, 72 hours apart.
Several others, including Real Sociedad goalkeeper Alex Remiro, announced that they had tested positive for antibodies, meaning they previously had and recovered from the coronavirus.
At Valdebebas training camp in Madrid on Monday, the players arrived in two shifts. The first group, including Sergio Ramos, Gareth Bale, and Luka Modric, participated in one-on-one training sessions at 10 a.m. local time, and the second group followed an hour later.
Luka Jovic was unable to participate after Madrid announced on Friday that he had fractured a bone in his right foot.
Other La Liga clubs, such as Barcelona and Atlético de Madrid, had already started training on Friday and Saturday.
A four-week process will see a gradual return to full training, with individual sessions followed by smaller group exercises as Spain’s reduction measures continue.
Source: espn.co.uk
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