La Liga: Plenty of football for fans to enjoy upon league restart says president Javier Tebas

Modified May 22, 2020 08:48 GMT

As football is set to return to Germany this weekend and with the Premier League also working towards a June return, La Liga Santander has followed suit and is aiming to resume the 2019/20 season in the coming weeks. This has been reported by several outlets so far and now, Javier Tebas — the president of La Liga Santander — has confirmed that they are indeed looking to restart the season midway through June.

Speaking to HindustanTimes in an exclusive, Tebas said on La Liga's return,

"The idea is that we (La Liga) can return in the middle of June, but the date will depend on what the health authorities tell us, we work closely with them and always follow their guidance."

The Spaniard was asked about the measures that have been taken up by the league in order to work towards this goal. He continued,

''For the moment we have been able to take the first step which is to return to training, great news for everyone, but under strict safety measures for the health of all. At the moment we are in the phase of individual training, which will become group training in line with government de-escalation measures. We will continue to follow this staged approach and we hope to resume the competition behind closed doors in June."

Real Madrid have resumed training in the capital city

Many La Liga clubs such as Barcelona, Real Madrid, Sevilla, and more have resumed training under strict health protocols and safety guidelines over the last week or so.

La Liga is expected to be back on television screens by mid-June, but that would also require extensive work from broadcasting crews at the venues. Addressing the safety of the broadcasting staff, Tebas remarked,

"People’s health is paramount, so we have a comprehensive protocol to safeguard the health of everyone involved as we work to restart La Liga."

Tebas went on to touch upon the safety protocols that they are hell-bent on following.

"Our (La Liga) protocol explains all the steps that must be followed by those who enter the stadium, protection measures, prevention, social distancing, hygiene, etc. to ensure that this return is as safe as possible."

Plenty of La Liga action in the coming months

The La Liga president also says the Spanish top-flight will give fans across the world 'plenty of football' to enjoy during this lockdown. Speaking on the potential scheduling of La Liga fixtures, Tebas said,

"Once LaLiga restarts, there will be plenty of football for fans to enjoy in the upcoming months. We are working to organize the games within a schedule that will be tight, as we move through the phases of this crisis we will be announcing how we will organize the matches."

However, he did mention how he feels that not having fans in the stadium is a massive loss to the sport and not just La Liga, saying,

"That said, football won’t really be back until the stands are filled with fans again. Playing behind closed doors, without fans, is an unfortunate measure. We look forward to seeing stadiums full of fans."

The 57-year-old La Liga official believes that football returning could serve as a positive sign and a sign of hope for the society, or 'progressing towards the new normal' as he put it. He ended with a positive message, saying that we as a society, need to work together to fight the disease. Tebas ended by saying,

"The return of football is a sign that society is progressing towards the new normal. It will also bring back an element of life that people in Spain and around the world know and love. My thoughts are with the families of the victims of this crisis and to all those who are suffering from it. It is a difficult time for everyone, but we have to keep working to get out of it. We hope that soon we will be able to take all the excitement of our football on television - on Facebook in India - to all corners of the world and continue to entertain them as we have always done."

Edited by Sai Teja