Spanish LaLiga Outlines Plans to Restart

La Liga; the top flight of Spanish football has announced that it is drafting a plan that would see the season restart in mid-June behind closed doors.

The division was suspended until further notice in March due to the threat posed by the ongoing Coronavirus Pandemic.

Spain’s government; after observing that death and infection rates from the disease appear to be slowing, have now published a four-phase lockdown exit plan.

Provisions within the proposals would allow football clubs to tentatively return to training in small groups at the start of May, as long as players and coaching staff are tested before the session.

UEFA; Europe’s professional football governing body,  has set a deadline on the 25th of May for leagues in the continent to declare whether they intend to play out their seasons, or abandon play altogether.

Countries such as France and the Netherlands have already controversially ended their domestic football seasons, and the former even went as far as banning all sporting events until September.

If a season is ended outright; available options that have been touted, are to render the campaign null and void”, and start afresh when it is safe to do so or to award titles and enforce relegations based on the standings at the time the league is called off.

Another possibility could be to base a final league table on predicted results, based on previous form and stats taken from throughout the season.

Whether or not any of these methods are fair has proven to be a topic of hot debate in recent weeks, and any decisions that are eventually taken on the matter will not be done lightly.