Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez hopes LaLiga will return “soon” and says that it will be up to federations and clubs to decide when.
The country’s sports ministry has approved LaLiga’s plans for clubs to carry out testing on players before they return to training, with the aim of a June restart for the season, with matches to be held behind closed doors.
Allowing clubs and governing bodies to decide when it is fit for football to return is a markedly different approach to that taken in other European countries such as France, where the government banned large sporting events until September earlier this week, ending the Ligue 1 season.
Spain, one of Europe's worst-hit countries with 25,100 deaths, imposed a strict lockdown in March, confining most of the population to their homes. Yet after 49 days, they have now allowed people to leave their homes for exercise.
"I'm more of a basketball fan than a football fan, but let's hope football returns soon," Sanchez told reporters.
"It will be the league and the federation to decide (when they return).
"We have started to allow individual training for team sports. Let's hope it's soon, but we'll see it sooner on TV than in the stadium, I'm afraid."
Squads will return to training in phases next week, first training individually, then moving to training in small groups and finally to full group training -- which needs to last at least two weeks before they can return to full competition.
Spain's major sports institutions and the government's department for sport are committed to completing the season.
Additional reporting by Reuters.
