Seville Derby to Kick Off La Liga Resumption on June 12

La Liga is set to restart on June 12, with the Seville derby between Sevilla and Real Betis set to kick things off again at the Ramon Sanchez-Pizjuan Stadium.

Games are expected to be played behind closed doors every day for six weeks, meaning that the season should be completed by the end of July.

That will see the title, European qualification places and relegation all decided by the end of the summer.

Teams have returned to training over the last few days in Spain, giving Spanish football a new feeling of optimism again after the disruption caused by the global health crisis.

Although five players have tested positive for Covid-19, Javier Tebas, the president of La Liga, has asserted that the risks are minimal.

Tebas was in forthright mood when he appeared on a special TV show on the Movistar channel, which owns the rights to La Liga games.

‘To return is to win’

The slogan attached to the TV show was ‘To return is to win’, something else that serves to underline the bullish spirit now infusing Spanish football.

The first division of La Liga has 10 weeks left to run while the second division has 11.

“We don’t know [when we can start], no one knows the date,” Tebas said.

“It will depend on spikes in the numbers and all the rules being followed. The virus is still there but if it can be on 12 June, so much the better.

“ If we all follow the health rules I don’t think we’re going to have any problem.

“The idea is to finish on 31 July and that August can be left for European competitions. Those dates can [then] also be used for the play-offs [in Spain].

“There will be league games every day, as already happens in March and April with a normal fixture list.”

The Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) has subsequently clarified that there will be no games on a Monday evening.

Apart from that intervention, however, it is not anticipated that there will be any obstacles for matches to take place on six days of the week.

Clubs returning to work has moved the process forward in recent days, and football is following the same four-phase plan as the Spanish government when it comes to returning fully.

Any players or staff who test positive for Covid-19 will have to self-isolate and will not be allowed to return until they have completed two negative tests.

Positive test numbers lower than anticipated

The numbers of positive tests have been much lower than anticipated.

“We expected 25 or 30 positives,” Tebas explained.

“We had made a statistical calculation based on the spread of the virus in Spain which gave us that number.

“There are five and three who aren’t footballers. That’s eight from 2,500 tests."

Every player will undergo a test 24 hours before he is due to play, and won’t play if he tests positive.

The test being used apparently has only a 5% failure rate.