It’s the question on everyone’s mind as they search for recreation and leisure: When will soccer leagues return and resume playing following the ongoing coronavirus pandemic?
[ MORE: Update: Which soccer leagues are still playing? ]
It’s a question with absolutely no firm answers, but more than a few speculative ones. There are only a few figures whose opinions on the matter carry any weight, and La Liga president Javier Tebas is one of them. Once again, even someone in Tebas’ position can only speculate at this point, but he says that Europe’s top leagues are targeting a return in mid-May — quotes from Sky Sports:“In mid-May we should be able to be back on with all European competitions. All of them. Of course, it depends on how the pandemic evolves.
“It could be before, but that is the date we’ve got in mind about being able to resume.”
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“UEFA’s decision to postpone the Euros has been quite useful to try and bring the leagues to an end, but we were making plans on the football calendar even before the postponement of the Euros.
“It was a scenario that we knew could have materialized and we are working on different starting dates. Here we have to work the other way around, thinking about what could be the latest finish date to see the other dates that can come up.
“The fundamental scenario is that half or late May is the maximum date for restarting the league so they are able to complete the season on June 30. The other scenarios can go further down [the calendar].
“The scenario can also depend on whether there will be some playoff rounds that could be set up or some Champions League games to be played on the weekend.
“When we will start to play again there will be all the medical guarantees, but that will not depend on us, it will depend on each country’s government. If they can guarantee that it is safe to play, we will play. If not, we won’t.”Follow @AndyEdMLS