Madrid (AFP)
The Spanish Football Championship has been suspended for "at least the next two days", at least until the end of March, while Real Madrid was placed in quarantine on Thursday due to the coronavirus pandemic.
"Given the known circumstances (Thursday) morning, in reference to the quarantine established at Real Madrid and the possible positive cases in players of other clubs, (...) LaLiga has decided to suspend at least the next two days", said the Spanish professional football league in a press release.
At the same time, Real Madrid confirmed in a statement that a player on his basketball team has been "tested positive at Covid-19".
"The first basketball and football teams" as well as "all the staff" of Real Madrid were therefore immediately "placed in quarantine", since the two teams "shared the facilities of the Real Madrid training center", which was therefore closed.
"The Euroleague basketball and LaLiga football matches, scheduled for today and tomorrow (Thursday and Friday), will not be contested," Real Madrid added in its statement.
On Tuesday, LaLiga issued a press release announcing initially that "the matches of LaLiga Santander (1st division) and LaLiga Smartbank (2nd division) will be played behind closed doors, starting today and during at least the two next weeks ", following the recommendations of the Higher Sports Council (CSD).
But on Wednesday, under pressure from third division clubs (the highest non-professional level in Spain), the Spanish football federation (RFEF) decreed the suspension of all amateur football in the country, whatever the level, the age category, gender or discipline.
A decision that goes beyond the recommendations of the government: Tuesday, after an inter-ministerial meeting, the High Council for Spanish Sport asked all the sports federations in the country to "compete in all professional or non-professional competitions in camera for two weeks. "
With 2,140 cases and 48 deaths according to the latest report communicated Wednesday evening by the Ministry of Health, Spain is now one of the countries most affected by the pandemic in the world, and the most affected in Europe behind Italy. Sunday, it still identified only 589 cases.
© 2020 AFP