LALIGA
Coronavirus: LaLiga clubs want special permission to train
LaLiga clubs have disinfected their facilities and made the dressing rooms more spacious to allow for social distancing as they eye a return to training.
The coronavirus is bringing about consensus that has often been lacking between clubs in Spanish football. The evidence is there in how the clubs are treating their employees and rejecting the idea of mass lay-offs. No team wants to be the first to step out of line and both clubs and players are looking for collective solutions rather than individual ones. After various meetings between certain clubs, they are looking for a way to get back training, which has been stopped after the state of alarm was put in place in Spain. Whatever is the outcome, one thing is clear: they will return to work as one and it will be done with the green light from health authorities and advisors from LaLiga.
Once the government told them to close down training sessions and their facilities, the clubs did and have been forced to wait. The clubs from the first and second are pushing for a special exemption to return to training, however, in order to be ready for when football does restart -- LaLiga has been postponed indefinitiely. They know they are not the only group of elite athletes waiting to return to training with the Olympic athletes also out of action. The earliest chance they have is after April 11, when the state of alarm will be removed. They can then ask for an exemption to go to work as normal. They are currently exercising but not as a group as the authorities try to contain the spread of the contagion.
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LaLiga clubs want to return training despite coronavirus
This special permission doesn't seem like it will arrive in the near future. The Olympic council and others are asking for an urgent solution to the situation. The current situation in Spain, which has seen more than 2,000 people lose their lives, means the government can not take any decision lightly. Many clubs have already adapted their facilities in case they are given the okay to return. They don't want to lose any more time. The football fields have been cleaned and disinfected.
They have also added extra changing room space to ensure no more than three players are in the same confined space. The idea of the technical staffs at the various clubs is to do a mini-preseason of two weeks until football can return. It seems now, however, that it won't be before May 10. The clubs have purchased or rented equipment for their players to work from home in an effort to keep them fit and adequately strong with gym sessions delivered by video. According to the experts, a professional could lose 3% of their fitness in just a week.
Barcelona, As have reported, are planning to return on 27 April. That is the date the rest of the clubs are eyeing too but that will depend on the government and what they say needs to happen next.