With virtual crowds, daily matches and lots of testing for the coronavirus, football is coming back to Spain.
The Spanish league resumes this week more than three months after it was suspended because of the pandemic, becoming the second top league to restart in Europe. The Bundesliga was first. The Premier League and the Italian league should be next in the coming weeks.
The Spanish league will kickstart in empty stadiums on Thursday with the popular Seville Derby between Sevilla and Real Betis, though the season will officially resume on Wednesday night with the second half of a second-division game between Rayo Vallecano and Albacete, which was interrupted in December after Rayo fans called a Ukrainian player from Albacete a “Nazi”.
The title race will resume over the weekend with leaders Barcelona visiting Mallorca on Saturday and second-place Real Madrid hosting Eibar on Sunday at their training centre because the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium is undergoing renovations for the rest of the season.
The Telegraph
Defending champions Barca have a two-point lead over Madrid with 11 rounds remaining The league expects to play matches every day until its conclusion on July 19, and all players and coaches will be tested before every game.
Stadiums will be empty for now, but the league has not ruled out having fans back by the end of the season as Spain continues to successfully fight the pandemic.
The government has been gradually lifting the lockdown restrictions put in place in March. The nation was one of the hardest hit by the pandemic, with nearly 28,000 Covid-19 deaths reported.
“I always believed that we would play again, despite of what many people said,” Spanish league president Javier Tebas said. “It was complicated, and our plan was to return when we could. It was difficult but we have succeeded.”
The league hasn’t communicated strict restrictions on goal celebrations and has so far appealed to players to use common sense. Only a few journalists will be allowed in matches because of health safety concerns.
The league estimated losses of $1.1 billion had the competition not returned.
