La Liga president Javier Tebas has discussed the latest developments for La Liga, as he targets the league restart for June.
Speaking on the El Partidazo #VolverEsGanar (#BackToWin) show by La Liga broadcaster Movistar, Tebas addressed that a restart date for the Spanish top-flight will fall in mid-June 2020.
Similar stories:
https://www.soccerscene.com.au/governance/restart-for-professional-sport-in-japan-edging-closer/
https://www.soccerscene.com.au/soccer-news/premier-league-on-youtube-floated-as-an-idea-to-complete-the-season/
Following the developments of an easing of restrictions in Spain, it has given La Liga the licence to map out how their restart will work.
“It wasn’t agreed beforehand, and it took us by surprise that the Spanish President announced it when he did,” Tebas said.
“We always knew the announcement would come, though. We’ve been working on this for months with the CSD (Spanish High Sports Council) and now it’s been given the green light by the President of Spain.
“We’re grateful to the Spanish government; as in other sectors they’re looking to kick-start the economy and Spanish football has a key part to play.”
As for when the La Liga restart will likely be, it all depended on what the government decided first and the league could go from there.
“The President spoke about playing from June 8th onwards because the Spanish government puts changes in ‘de-escalation phase’ into effect on Mondays,” Tebas said.
“That Sunday, the country would be in Phase 2, which is when we’d be able to hold matches in stadiums across Spain. Now we need to see what day of the week we start playing.
“We need to link it to each club’s training phases. We’d like to see as much parity as possible in that sense. What’s for certain is that it will start the weekend of June 12th, or even on Thursday June 11th.
“It’s not decided yet; we need to align the phases, meet with the Spanish Football federation and the CSD (Spanish High Sports Council) to finalise everything.”
Tebas has confirmed that La Liga’s preference of the first game back would be Sevilla FC vs Real Betis – the Seville derby.
“We need to bear in mind that different Autonomous Communities are in different ‘de-escalation phases,’ which means certain codes of conduct in certain parts of the country could affect our protocol,” Tebas said.
“If we progress as the Spanish president says, it is possible that we make Thursday June 11th. If not, it would be the 12th, or the 13th. Fingers crossed it will be Thursday 11th at 10pm Spanish time.”
For the league to prepare for the restart, training details have also been revealed.
“Full group training will be from next Monday (June 1st) onwards,” Tebas said.
“This week, players will train in groups of up to 14 and it’s not planned for them to train all together until next week.
“We need to maintain as much caution and care as possible. We’ve gone through some very difficult and complicated moments during this pandemic and we don’t want to jump the gun.”
It was also mentioned that Spain could have high temperatures during the times they’d normally play.
While it’s early days, the La Liga president may need to target different kick-off times to combat the changed conditions in seperate parts of the country.
“Our plan for kick-off times during the week would be to play in the afternoon or evening, between 7.30-8pm or 9.30-10pm,” Tebas said.
“Over the weekend, there would be three slots: 5pm, 7.30pm, 9.30 or 10pm. It hasn’t been decided yet, we’re looking at it with our broadcasters.
“But obviously, we’d plan for those 5pm games to be those played up on Spain’s northern coast where temperatures in June and July don’t exceed 28°C.”
