Coronavirus in sport: La Liga to resume group training

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Bengaluru, May 18: The La Liga Premier (Santander) and First Division (SmartBank) clubs will resume group training from Monday (May 18) with a maximum of ten players.

This is a significant step forward on the road towards restarting professional football in Spain, which has been on hold since March 12 due to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

"The start of the next phase in La Liga's Return to Training protocol is another step towards the restarting of the competition. It'll be good to be able to set all training routines on an equal footing. It's very important that every club have the same chance to be in good shape. It's not essential, but it's very important and we're grateful that it will be like that," La Liga President Javier Tebas was quoted as saying on the El Partidazo #BackToWin show on Movistar.

Bunedesliga and K League are the only leagues to have resumed, though both of them have started behind closed doors with many restrictions in place.

Tebas welcomed the return of the Bundesliga, "I'm very happy as they've taken a very important step. We've worked hard on this together over the past months. We've exchanged protocols and ideas. They were the first to get up and running and they're an example to follow."

Initially, there was lot of apprehesnion after as many eight players and support staff had tested positive when training had resumed.

The resumption of group training sessions in Spain was laid out in La Liga's Return to Training protocol and agreed with the Spanish High Sports Council.

The possibility of moving forward to this next phase of the strategy was one of the sports-related flexibility measures set out in Ministerial Order issued on May 16.

Group training may be carried out by all clubs, regardless of the de-escalation phase of the province in which they are located. All training will adopt the preventive measures laid out by the La Liga Return to Training Protocol to guarantee the highest levels of safety for everyone involved at all times.

(With MSL Media inputs)