2024-07-13 19:10:22
In fact, the Portuguese Football League has decided to resume on Wednesday, behind closed doors, the last days of the first division championship which will continue until July 26.
The matches will continue to be broadcast on pay channels that hold the broadcasting rights to the competition, which was suspended due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
As part of the preparations, players from the main football clubs resumed individual training on May 4, in strict compliance with distancing measures and specific travel circuits.
The Professional Football League and Portuguese Cup season will thus resume behind closed doors, supported by the agreement of the General Directorate of Health (DGS).
Footballers of the 1st League clubs will be required, under preventive measures, to carry out tests for the new coronavirus 24 hours before each match.
The Portuguese government had decided in April that the sporting competition, interrupted on March 12, could resume towards the end of May subject to the adoption of a health protocol.
Once this protocol was established, the sports and health authorities were called upon to draw up a list of stadiums that would allow compliance with the conditions imposed by the DGS, the League explained in a press release.
Thus, nine football stadiums, deemed to comply with the safety and hygiene standards imposed by covid-19, have been approved by the health authorities for the return of the League and the hosting of matches immediately.
In order to ensure that stadiums are rigorously inspected and that all professionals involved in the matches and their organisation are subject to medical tests, June 3 is the date chosen for the first match of the 25th day, the League specified in a press release.
When the competition was suspended last March due to the coronavirus pandemic, with 10 matchdays still to go, FC Porto were top of the table with a one-point lead over reigning champions Benfica.
But, before the resumption, the League and the Portuguese Football Federation have called for compliance with the measures imposed by the DGS so that the last ten days of the competition can be held in the best possible conditions.
The rules imposed by health authorities include players being tested twice a week and being required to limit their social interactions to those close to them and club staff.
The matches must be played “in as few stadiums as possible” and their organisation must not involve gatherings of more than ten people, the DGS also demanded.
Some footballers have reacted on social media by being critical of the imposed rules, while several columnists have expressed doubts about the merits of a resumption of the championship.
However, the president of the Portuguese footballers’ union, Joaquim Evangelista, was reassuring. “This is not the time to be alarmist. We are in a period of deconfinement and we must expect to have positive cases in society and in football in particular,” he said.
The same goes for Prime Minister Antonio Costa, for whom it is “important that the sports season can end”.
Players and coaches “will be the first to take the necessary precautions to avoid being contaminated,” he argued, stressing that “if a club has its entire team infected, it will forfeit the match.”
The country began a phased deconfinement plan on May 4 that lasted throughout the month, with the first phase beginning on May 4 with the reopening of small street shops, hair salons and car stands. In the second phase, on May 18, it was the turn of schools, museums, art galleries, cafes and restaurants to open their doors, while mosques, theaters, cinemas and large shopping areas began to reopen from June 1.
Relatively spared by the epidemic of the new coronavirus, the country has so far recorded 1,424 deaths from Covid-19 and 32,700 officially declared cases of infection.
Indeed, Portugal was less affected by this pandemic than other European countries, notably neighbouring Spain, because it had taken measures very quickly: closing schools and borders, and declaring a state of emergency very early on to deal with the spread of the virus.
2024-07-13 19:10:22