LaLiga clubs start training in groups of up to ten players

LaLiga Santander and LaLiga SmartBank clubs will be able to start group training tomorrow, May 18^th, with a maximum of ten players. This is a significant step forward on the road towards restarting professional football in Spain, which has been on hold since March 12^th due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

LaLiga president Javier Tebas featured this evening on the El Partidazo #BackToWin show on Movistar, LaLiga’s broadcaster in Spain, to announce the new developments ahead of the planned restart of football in Spain.

“The start of the next phase in LaLiga’s Return to Training protocol is another step towards the restarting of the competition. It will be good to be able to set all training routines on an equal footing. It’s very important that every club have the same chance to be in good shape. It’s not essential, but it’s very important and we’re grateful that it will be like that,” said Tebas.

The president of LaLiga was positive about the possibility of football being played every day. “That’s what I hope. We shouldn’t have any problems playing on Mondays across the eleven rounds of matches we have left to play. I hope for some sense from the Spanish Football Federation on this, because it’s very important for us to be able to give both our national and international broadcasters, and fans across the world, football on as many days as possible to ensure as little disruption as possible,” he said.

Tebas also welcomed the return of the Bundesliga in Germany this weekend, adding: “I’m very happy, and I’ve congratulated them because they’ve taken a very important step. We’ve worked hard on this together over the past months, we’ve exchanged protocols, ideas… we spoke once or twice every week. I’m very proud of the Bundesliga. It wasn’t easy; they were the first to get up and running and they’re an example to follow.”

The resumption of group training sessions in Spain was laid out in LaLiga’s Return to Training protocol and agreed with the CSD (Spanish High Sports Council). The possibility of moving forward to this next phase of the strategy was one of the sports-related flexibility measures set out in Ministerial Order SND/414/2020, issued on May 16^th.  

Group training may be carried out by all clubs, regardless of the de-escalation phase of the province in which they are located. All training will adopt the preventive measures laid out by the LaLiga Return to Training Protocol to guarantee the highest levels of safety for everyone involved at all times.