LALIGA president Javier Tebas has revealed that Europe’s top leagues including the English top-flight are targeting a return to action in the middle of May.
The coronavirus pandemic has brought a halt to almost all major sporting events, with English football currently postponed to April 30 in an effort to stop the spread.
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Javier Tebas believes the football season could be back underway in the middle of MayCredit: WireImage – Getty
Tebas recently stated how Spanish teams could be forced to play every 48 hours, with Champions League games to be played on Saturdays.
And now the 57-year-old – who is part of a working Uefa committee – has lifted the lid on when he expects the football calendar to resume in order for the season to be finished by the end of June.
He said: “Given the current situation, we believe we can restart the competitions in mid-May, perhaps during the third week.
“If circumstances permit, we could bring that forward.
“There are 30 affected leagues and 30 cup tournaments and we have to co-ordinate each schedule at both a national and international level. We need to work together.”
Both this summer’s scheduled tournaments – Euro 2020 and the Copa America – have been pushed back by a year, meaning there is room to complete the campaign.
Tebas added: “We are working with leagues such as Serie A in Italy, who have 14 games still to play, or the Danish league, who have 15 left to play.
“UEFA’s decision to postpone Euro 2020 will help us find a way to finish our competitions. We made our calendar calculations even before the decision to postpone it.
“We knew we could work something out and we’re now looking at different restart dates. We have to work in reverse, as it were, looking at the latest date we could start playing to work out other options.”
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Sky Sports pundit Gary Neville meanwhile believes players would be willing to play every 24 hours for nine days straight if it meant that they could finish the season.
He said: “At this moment in time the most important thing is they make decisive decisions. They’ve bought themselves some time to react. The last thing I’m worried about is sorting out fixtures.
“If footballers need to play every day for nine days they’d do it – would be a festival of football for two weeks where everything finished in two weeks. It could be spectacular – it could bring some joy back to the nation.”
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Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
