Spanish lawns are back in service! After three months of stoppage due to the pandemic of Covid-19, the championship of football starts again Thursday June 11 with a derby of Seville in camera.
This resumption of the season is both tinged with enthusiasm and apprehension in one of the countries most affected in the world by the pandemic of new coronavirus. In Seville, where the derby is one of the hottest in Spain, as in Bilbao, Madrid or Barcelona, garlands of shirts of Spanish clubs were hung in the busy streets, to revive the craze, but after three months of lethargy, the flame is hard to take.
🔜🔥 Don't miss the Sevillian derby ➡ #ElGranDerbi
⚽ @SevillaFC_FRA 🆚 @ RealBetis_en
🗓 Thursday 11/06
⏰ 22h00 🇪🇸 # LaLigaSantander pic.twitter.com/hCojZeJ7tC
Sevillian fans on each side had to keep their usual taunts for social media, cooled by the strict post-pandemic measures adopted by the Spanish health authorities and La Liga, manager of professional football in Spain.
"It is very important that we take into account what we are asked, that fans respect safe distances, whether at home, in bars. It is the only time in our life that it will happen "We have to live it 100%, but respecting the measures. We will do it that way, so will the supporters," asked Betis Sevilla coach Rubi on Wednesday in pre-match press conference video.
Strict measures
Despite the successful resumption of the championships in Germany (May 16) and Portugal (June 3), the whole of Spain is waiting for the La Liga to restart after 90 days of scarcity. This is a full-scale crash test for health standards and a first step towards a return to normal in a country which deplored 242,280 cases and 27,136 deaths from the new coronavirus, according to the latest reports on Wednesday.
By midday on Thursday, around 600 law enforcement officials will be patrolling around the Sanchez-Pizjuan stadium to disperse any rallies of supporters, while the area around the stadium will be bristling with barriers, according to local press.
While the debate is already launched in Spain for a possible return of part of the supporters in the stadiums by the end of June, the recovery will be good in stadiums closed to the public, where the players will have to enter gloved and masked.
A system of flights and hotels exclusively reserved for teams has been implemented by La Liga. The trips to the stadium will be made in two separate coaches for members of the same team, or the players will be asked to come in their individual vehicle, and they will have to undergo tests for detection of coronavirus before entering the disinfected changing rooms.
On all the lawns of Spain, a minute of silence will be observed before the kick-off of this 28th day of the championship, in tribute to the victims of the epidemic.
This will also be the case on Saturday in Majorca, where Lionel Messi, Antoine Griezmann and all the stars of Barça will make their comeback to competition, or even in the small country stadium Alfredo Di Stéfano (6,000 seats), in the northern suburbs of Madrid , where the great Real Madrid of Zinedine Zidane and Karim Benzema will receive Eibar, Sunday, still behind closed doors.
With AFP
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