Two of Europe’s top domestic leagues are reportedly aiming to resume their respective schedules in May and June.
The German Bundesliga could see their schedule resume on May 9th, according to ESPN. However, the matches would take place behind closed doors with no fans and the league itself still needs approval from the German Health Department.
The green light has been given for the @Bundesliga_EN to restart May 9- behind closed Doors. The health department needs to agree and the league has to present them their plan but as of now things are looking up and up for May 9th return of German ⚽️.
— Taylor Twellman (@TaylorTwellman) April 20, 2020
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The news comes a week after German chancellor Angela Merkel confirmed an order banning large gatherings until August. Bayern Munich currently leads the Bundesliga table, four points clear of second place Borussia Dortmund.
In addition, the German Cup semifinals were also set to take place in March, but have yet to be rescheduled.
Spain’s La Liga is also reportedly set to resume playing in June after an agreement between the league and the Spanish FA. Due to a lengthy positive meeting with the Sports Council in Spain, training is expected to resume once government guidelines have been set.
June 6th is the reported start date for the final 11 games of the La Liga schedule, with the beginning of May serving as the start of training for all 20 top-flight clubs. It is expected that the final matches would be played behind closed doors despite the State of Emergency being lifted in Spain.
El Clásico rivals Barcelona and Real Madrid are neck and neck in the La Liga title race with the Catalan side holding a two point lead in first place. The race for the top four is also congested with five points separating third place Sevilla and seventh place Valencia.
Some European clubs have resumed training in some capacity, but only Belarus has seen its professional leagues remaining in action during the hectic period.
Germany’s numbers, which had been exemplary, have been going up the past week or so. Saying stuff like this appeals to politicals or soccer obsessives — and we’d all like to see sports again — but stuff like this should be reappearing on a well managed timeline vis-a-vis the risk to players, staff, and fans. The Japan League baseball tried to do spring training couple weeks back and shut back down because players tested positive. I don’t see the upside in encouraging outlays and effort until the numbers are much much lower. And for crowds of fans it may be 2021 or 2022.
Risk should definitely be weighed and that’s why the Health Department has to sign off. New cases are down in Germany 6800 new cases on 4/2 only in the 2,000s 7 of last 8 days. The number of active cases has been steadily declining since April 6th. Deaths have increased but those correlate to the height of the new cases, yesterday saw fewest numbers of deaths since March 30. If anywhere could get back in May its Germany. I wouldn’t be surprised if the health department won’t push them back to Mid May. Kind of a Bundesliga bids May 6th knowing they’ll come back with a counter. I do agree on fans, without a vaccine I’m not sure we see fans this year in any sport.
Last two days number of new cases around 1,500 in Germany each day, lowest since early March.