Madrid (AFP)

Building on the German example, Spain gave the green light on Saturday to a resumption of its football championship in the week of June 8, in reverse of France where the season was definitively stopped.

The return to competition of world football stars, in Barcelona with Lionel Messi, Antoine Griezmann and Luis Suarez, or in Real Madrid with Eden Hazard and Karim Benzema, it's coming soon!

La Liga has not yet communicated an exact calendar for the resumption of the championship, but its president Javier Tebas favors for ten days the date of Friday June 12 for the first meetings, while the championship is stopped since 12th of March.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez gave the last positive signal on Saturday: "The hardest part is over (...) We have overcome the great wave of the pandemic," he said at a press conference. .

"The week of June 8, the resumption of major sporting and professional competitions, and in particular La Liga, will be authorized," added the head of the Spanish government.

Spain is therefore, after Germany, the second of the five major European championships to announce a resumption of matches, stopped since mid-March because of the Covid-19 pandemic which forced Europe to confine itself.

Italian Serie A and the English Premier League hope to emulate the Liga and the Bundesliga. They depend on political decisions, while an announcement is expected in particular next week in Italy.

In France, the Professional Football League (LFP) ratified the end of the season on April 30, Prime Minister Édouard Philippe having explained two days earlier when announcing the confinement exit plan that "the 2019 season / 20 professional sports, including soccer, will not be able to resume. "

- "Do not let your guard down" -

"We are very happy with the decision. It is the fruit of a great deal of work between the clubs, the players, the coaches ... But it is very important to respect the sanitary measures. We cannot lower our guard" , rejoiced on Twitter Javier Tebas.

In Germany, the resumption of football from the weekend of May 16-17 was acted on May 6 by Chancellor Angela Merkel at a meeting with the presidents of regions, but the clubs are subject to a draconian health protocol , with regular tests and balloons to be disinfected often.

In Spain, one of the European countries most affected by the health crisis with more than 28,000 people dead, clubs have been allowed since the beginning of the week to train in small groups.

La Liga is given until the end of July to play the last eleven days of the Championship. The health protocol provides, as in Germany, in camera meetings, with less than 200 people present in the stadium, virological tests for the players on the eve of each match and the temperature measurement before going up on the field.

In Germany, ending the Bundesliga season should allow the payment of almost 300 million euros in TV rights. Javier Tebas had estimated in early April that if La Liga did not resume, losses could amount to 1 billion euros, against 300 million in the event of a recovery without spectators.

This recovery is good news for Atlético Madrid, qualified for the quarter-finals of the Champions League, and for Real Madrid and Barça, who have yet to play their knockout stages of C1 return, respectively against Manchester City and Naples.

UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin of Slovenia hopes to complete the 2019/20 Champions League "by the end of August", with the resumption of European football's top competition in early August.

© 2020 AFP