• De-escalation. Government's coup to soccer

10 days ago, all the First and Second clubs announced with hype that their players were undergoing clinical examinations prior to returning to training. Some even openly reported that the PCR and serological tests had been performed . They even showed no disguised images in which it seemed material from Synlab, the laboratory contracted by LaLiga to carry out the tests of the Covid-19. It did not matter in the least that this practice burst the government's account that there would be no massive tests in professional football, cracked already from the moment that the Ministerial Order that regulates them left them to the decision of the club doctors.

This past week, between Thursday and Friday, the First and Second clubs repeated their routine, undergoing a new round of tests prior to group training that begins today. This is how the protocol drawn up by LaLiga marks it and so they all did. The difference, more than substantial, is that this new round has not been publicized. Without images, without information to the media without tuits .. . Nothing. From transparency to secrecy. Not even LaLiga yesterday offered a general balance of the positives detected.

Asked by several clubs about this drastic change in criteria, the answer is that they are indications of LaLiga and that they limit themselves to abiding by them, as they are generally doing throughout this de-escalation process. And, as EL MUNDO has learned, it has been directly the Government that has demanded that football be more discreet with this new test round. The one from the previous week raised blisters among a part of the population reluctant to have healthy players undergo tests and the Sánchez Executive tried to minimize the media and social impact of a new round of tests.

This request is part of the Government's will that the competition be resumed as soon as possible with the lowest possible popular cost, materialized through what are already known as the Viana pacts that have aligned two irreconcilable enemies such as Luis Rubiales and Javier Tebas around to the leadership of Irene Lozano, as president of the Higher Sports Council. Sánchez tries to advance soccer, but he does it with discretion, trying to make as little noise as possible. Along these lines, the BOE this Saturday brought a novelty much desired by LaLiga: all clubs will be able to train in groups of up to 10 players starting today .

Government Acceleration

This was a measure contemplated for clubs located in areas that are already in phase 1, but the Government has decided to apply it also in those that remain in phase 0: Community of Madrid, metropolitan area of ​​Barcelona and urban areas of Castilla y León . The Minister of Health, Salvador Illa , already announced on Friday that certain "relief measures" would be applied in these areas, a kind of phase 0.5. He mentioned some, such as the opening of small shops without an appointment or the opening of museums with reduced capacity, but not the one related to professional football. To know it, we had to wait for the BOE yesterday.

This decision means, in practice, that all the professional teams in Spain are already in phase 1, although their areas or provinces have not yet passed the stage. It benefits seven Primera clubs (Madrid, Atlético, Getafe, Leganés, Barcelona, ​​Espanyol and Valladolid), five in Segunda (Rayo, Alcorcón, Fuenlabrada, Numancia and Mirandés) and four in the ACB Basketball League (Madrid, Barcelona, Joventut and Burgos). Without this change, all these clubs would have continued with individual training while their rivals would have gone on to do it in groups, generating a comparative grievance for the future return of the competition.

Beyond the specific fact, the Government's flexibility in applying relief measures allows LaLiga to keep the horizon that the competition can resume on June 12. If Sánchez had been strict, it would have been impossible, since the zones that are still in phase 0 will not advance to 2 until June 8 at the earliest. In other words, they would not have been able to complete the obligatory week of collective training - those of a lifetime - before June 15, postponing the resumption of the League until, in the most optimistic scenario, on the 16th.

Now, June 12 is still a doable date for professional football to return to competition. And that is the most important reading of the BOE on Saturday, since the advance of individual training to group will not be too significant. The Government demands that in these sessions the two-meter distance between footballers continues to be maintained and, therefore, that there is no physical contact between them. That means that the players will be able to pass the ball between them and little else. There will be no games, no trial of set pieces, no disputes with the goalkeepers, or pressure exercises ... The question was repeated this weekend among the coaching staff: "How do we train as a group without contact? " The physical trainers have had to squeeze their manuals to adapt the sessions to these unusual conditions.

To see real workouts, you have to wait at least one more week. With the Government's permission, of course.

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Know more

  • Salvador Illa
  • Javier Thebes
  • Luis Rubiales
  • CD Mirandés
  • Irene Lozano
  • sports
  • First division

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