LaLiga President Javier Tebas "hopes Spanish football will resume on June 12 with games being played every day to finish the season." Spain's top two divisions last week "began testing players for the virus" and many have "started individual training, the second step of the league's four-phase protocol for returning to action." However, it was confirmed yesterday that five LaLiga players "tested positive for coronavirus and have entered quarantine." Tebas said, "I'd like to restart on June 12 but we have to be prudent and ... we all need to focus on complying with measures to protect health" (SKYSPORTS.com, 5/11).
Meanwhile, LaLiga is "set to release details of a study showing that the risk of players spreading coronavirus on a football pitch is 'practically nil.'" Tebas said that the league has "evidence that players are only in close contact with each other for 67 seconds per match at most." The research cited by Tebas follows a study from Aarhus Univ. in Denmark that "showed the risk of contracting coronavirus while playing football is minimal" (London TELEGRAPH, 5/11).
