April 8 – La Liga has earmarked three possible dates for the resumption of domestic matches once the green light is given by health authorities.
“Of all the different scenarios we have been looking at with UEFA to go back to competing, the most probable ones are 28 May, 6 June or 28 June,” said La Liga boss Javier Tebas.
No Spanish side has played a competitive game since March 11, when Atletico Madrid knocked holders Liverpool out of the Champions League.
Tebas says training will not return until emergency measures – in place until April 26 – are lifted in Spain. He estimates clubs could lose €1 billion if the current campaign is cancelled with 11 rounds of matches to play.
“If we are looking at the economic impact, including the money we would get from European competitions, the revenue Spanish clubs would miss out on if we don’t get back playing again is €1 billion. If we do get playing but without spectators, it would be €300 million,” he said
Tebas says two strategies are being worked on. One involves domestic league matches being played at weekends and European and general cup competitions in midweek. The second is to play blocks of fixtures, with domestic competitions being finished in June and July, before European games are played in July and August.
“Each country is different. In England, you have three competitions. In Spain and Italy it is two. There are 18 teams in the German league but all the others have 20.
“The leagues who have problems in their calendar should look for internal solutions. If that is impossible, we might need some kind of co-ordination with UEFA but at the moment, we are not considering changing formats.
“Think about the top leagues. We have sold our broadcasting rights based on certain formats. We have 20 clubs and 380 matches played during a specific period of time. UEFA has also sold its rights based on a format, including the qualifiers and the group phase. This applies to everyone.”
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