LaLiga could be suspended temporarily, following the heavy corona virus outbreak and safety measures taken to further minimize its effect.
Seeing how the outbreak is affecting the world as well as the footballing part of it, safety measures have been taken in an attempt to prevent the virus from having further influence.
Yesterday, as reported here on Blaugranagram, the Association of Spanish Footballers urged LaLiga and the Spanish Football Federation to prevent fixtures from being played across all divisions, to protect the leagues’ players. UEFA have since decided to postpone two Europa League fixtures, namely the encounters between Getafe and Inter Milan, as well as the one between Sevilla and AS Roma, respectively.
At this point in time, everything points towards a suspension of LaLiga indefinitely, and all clubs are in close contact with the Spanish league officials, reports Spanish newspaper SPORT Wednesday evening.
The big issue with regards to postponing games in the upcoming rounds of LaLiga lie in the transmission rights given to the TV channels. Barcelona’s club president, Josep Bartomeu, yesterday at a Barcelona-themed forum at the Circulo Ecuestre, stated that Barcelona would lose 6 million euros in TV rights, should the league be suspended. SPORT adds that the clubs, in general, will lose one-fourth of the TV rights agreed upon, should the suspension take place.
The majority of clubs have been informed that the postponement of the upcoming two rounds of LaLiga football will happen, with a very high likelihood of the official announcement being released tomorrow through LaLiga’s channels, adds the Spanish news outlet.
The Spanish Football Federation officially announced Wednesday night that a meeting is expected to take place Thursday at noon, between the federation’s monitoring commission, LaLiga and the Association of Spanish Footballers.
Should the suspension be planned for by those in charge, LaLiga would have to look towards finding dates for the games to be played. However, if the virus outbreak continues, it would mean that the league title, the teams to be promoted as well as the teams relegated would have to be chosen prematurely.
Regardless of what happens, it remains important to minimize the outbreak as much as possible, with certain countries having officially announced the closing of educational institutions as well as workplaces in the public sector temporarily.
