• Soccer: Soccer players ask the Government to clarify if they can take the tests

The Superior Sports Council (CSD) has sent this Friday to the Ministry of Health its protocol for the "Resumption of professional sports activity". In the document, of four folios and to which EL MUNDO has had access, both the reasons and the deadlines that, if Health approves them, will put the footballers to training already next Monday in a first phase are detailed. However, the most striking are the reasons given by the body chaired by Irene Lozano to promote this return of professional sports, and especially football.

In the letter, the CSD explains to the Ministry that Salvador Illa directs the "political benefits" that soccer would have to recover. It would suppose, explains the text, a "normalization of everyday life". "Playing games behind closed doors again allows them to be broadcast on television", and this, he affirms, "contributes to strengthening the collective spirit in the last phase of confinement", and then giving concrete examples where it would be good for the games to be seen: in the environment of families, nursing homes, juvenile centers and also penitentiary centers.

But these are not the only reasons why the CSD proposes a soon return to football. In political terms, that return would improve the "reputation of Spain". Why? The text itself explains it: "The two best-known Spanish brands internationally are Real Madrid and Barcelona [...]. The resumption of the Spanish league (one of the best in the world) would have a positive impact on our reputation," he explains. Similarly, he says, "devising safe protocols would place us at the forefront of sports healthcare."

Football, 1.4 of GDP

The CSD also speaks of the fact that high-level athletes (DAN), some 5,000 in Spain and that include First and Second Division players, as well as those of the ACB Basketball League, are a "national asset" as representatives of Spain in international competitions. "This has great political relevance," says the text, because "by resuming their training, we help when they exercise that representation of Spain to do so in better conditions." After the "political" reasons, the CSD lists the "economic" reasons. Explains that soccer is 1.4% of GDP , which generates 185,000 direct and indirect jobs, and recognizes that, after the Covid-19 epidemic, there will be no public money for all athletes, so that the "only private collaborator" it will be soccer.

Finally, the document proposes three scenarios or phases to the Ministry of Health for that return. In the first one, which would start next Monday, the individual training of the players would be allowed in the sports cities of the teams. On May 11 , in larger groups and on the 18th or 25th of the same month, normal training sessions, with the entire group (as always). Of course, with the maximum security measures and social distancing, made explicit in the protocol that LaLiga has prepared for this purpose. All with the aim that Health allows the return of football.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

  • sports
  • Coronavirus Special
  • soccer

SoccerThe Danish Midtjylland plans to set up a drive-in theater next to the stadium to keep the fans going.

Soccer: Goyo Benito dies due to coronavirus at 73 years old in one of the residences hit by the pandemic

FútbolInterview with Andrés Iniesta: "Money doesn't matter; we all have the same fears"