Lisbon (AFP)
The Portuguese football championship will be able to resume the last weekend of May, behind closed doors and subject to the imminent approval of a health protocol, the government announced on Thursday when it presented its deconfinement plan.
The possibility of a resumption of the National League of the first division, suspended since mid-March due to the coronavirus pandemic, and the holding of the final of the Portuguese Cup are "the only exception" among sports competitions which also remain banned, said Prime Minister Antonio Costa.
This recovery is conditional on the validation by the health authorities of a protocol developed by the League and the identification of stadiums meeting the conditions necessary for compliance with this protocol, he said to the media.
Ten days before the end of the championship, FC Porto is at the top of the classification with a point ahead of Benfica, the defending champion. Braga and Sporting follow far behind, respectively 13 and 15 lengths from the leader.
Benfica and Porto are scheduled to resume training next week, but were awaiting the official announcement of the resumption of competition to specify their return-to-work schedule, which should begin with individual training sessions.
The two clubs will also face each other in the final of the Portuguese Cup, a match which was to take place on May 24 before being postponed.
Beyond the sporting challenges for a country keen on football, but which no longer has any team involved in European cups this season, the suspension of competitions also represents an economic challenge for Portuguese football.
One of its biggest sponsors, the telecoms and media group Altice, for example, has put forward a contractual cause to suspend its payments to first and second division clubs.
Sporting Portugal, whose financial situation was already fragile before the health crisis, reduced its players' wages by 40% and placed almost all of its employees on short-time working from mid-April.
© 2020 AFP