FOOTBALL: La Liga to start testing players before the training resumes.

After the Government of Spain eased some of the lockdown measures, football clubs will be allowed to resume training after nearly two months. Covid-19 tests will be conducted on footballers this week before the commencement of training. The clubs' training facilities will also be inspected and disinfected to comply with the guidelines of local authorities.

The first phase is Phase 0 - The Preparatory Phase, wherein individual training sessions will be allowed. Everyone involved, i.e. players, coaching staff, club staff will have to be tested, two days before this phase begins and testing can start as early as Tuesday, reportedly. La Liga wants tests to be conducted daily after the training sessions begin.

Although no date for its return has been given so far, Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez expects the league to resume "soon" behind closed doors, he said: "We hope that leagues and federations will come to a decision soon. We already started to allow individual training sessions for team sports, we hope [a return] will come sooner rather than later, but we'll see it first on television rather than in the stadiums, I'm afraid." La Liga is aiming to resume the league in mid-June, therefore providing clubs to train for a month. 

The league recently sent a protocol to clubs mentioning a four-phase plan which will be as follows:

1. Preparatory Phase 

2. Individual Training Phase

3. Smaller Group sessions Phase and

4. Full Squad Sessions Phase

In the initial phase, the players won't be allowed to interact with their teammates. Coaches must supervise players from as much distance as possible. Gyms will not have more than two players at a time; players must wear masks and gloves till they reach the pitch. 

Spain was one of the severely affected countries by the Coronavirus pandemic and had gone into emergency on 14th April but has loosened some of the restrictions after the number of confirmed cases declined.