A few weeks ago, a physiotherapist called to the house of one of La Liga's stars for a treatment session. As detailed by El Mundo, the physio was stopped at the door by the player's wife: without evidence of a negative coronavirus COVID-19 test, the physio wasn't going to be let inside their house; she didn't want her children to be put at risk.
Professional football in Spain is at a crossroads. Having suspended La Liga—after an Eibar vs. Real Sociedad game on 10 March—there are plans afoot to restart the league on one of three dates: May 29, June 6 or June 28 (with a view to finishing the league by the end of July, ideally leaving August free to conclude UEFA's European club competitions).
Not everyone agrees that it should go ahead, however. While other leagues, including England, Germany and Italy have roadmaps for a return of football, the remainder of the 2019-2020 season in the Netherlands, for example, has been cancelled.
"The problem is that the Spanish football industry badly needs the return of league football for financial reasons," says Kike Mateu, a journalist with Las Provincias, who contracted the virus while reporting on the UEFA Champions League match between Atalanta and Valencia at the San Siro in February but is now happily recovered.
"If the season is cancelled, there's millions of euros, particularly with television rights' income, that will be lost. Football clubs need the league to return to action, but if you talk to footballers, some don't want to return to play. They want to wait, sit out the summer, and go back playing in September—like in Holland—when it will be safer.
"At the end of the day, premier division footballers are big stars, they're not like the rest of us who need to work. They feel a lot safer in their houses, so many of them would prefer not to play, but there is a lot of people interested in the return of football for money reasons. This has created an open conflict between the league and the players."
There's a lot of cash on the line. According to Javier Tebas, president of La Liga, as much as €1 billion will be lost if the league doesn't finish its season. There are few—if any—countries in the world where football is as important to the economy as in Spain. It is estimated that the sport accounts for 1.37 per cent of GDP (and almost 200,000 jobs).
The stakes are high. Spain has suffered well over 20,000 deaths from the coronavirus, which is the third-highest death toll in the world behind the United States and Italy. Several prominent players and coaches have voiced their concerns about a premature return to play. They include Gerard Moreno, Villarreal's Spanish international striker, who said last week in an interview with EFE (h/t El Desmarque): "When you see the daily rate of deaths and contagions, it doesn't enter my mind to return playing. Thinking about [it] is inappropriate."
"I think that the players' concerns are totally understandable in terms of their own safety," says Damia, a former Barcelona footballer who works as a coach with the Catalan football federation, "but they will never have 100 per cent guarantees that it's safe to go training and back playing matches [until there is a vaccine]. Their concerns are valid, but as long as all the protocols for a return to training are controlled, the players shouldn't be too worried. It's my opinion.
"My feeling is that in general footballers want to return if the safety precautions are OK. Most—if not all—of them have had their salaries reduced. A football career is short. Of course they're not going to be happy because the circumstances will be a lot different than they were two months ago, but they will want to finish the season, and hopefully start next season in September in different conditions."
"I understand [their worries]," adds Luis Miguel Ramis, a former Real Madrid player, who guided Albacete into the playoffs for promotion to the premier division last season. "We're all scared—not just the footballers, especially with the children in our families.
"There are measures you should take to avoid infection. ... The security measures that La Liga proposes should give us enough confidence to return to training. If a footballer doesn't want to train because he's afraid—even when the situation gets better—he'll have to talk to his club about it or leave it. You can't force anyone.
"The fear we all have will disappear little by little while the situation continues to get better, but I understand that players are asking for the maximum level of security possible—not only for themselves, but for the clubs' employees, coaching staff, for their families. We just need to wait a bit longer for things to improve."
The details of La Liga's protocols for a return to training—which ideally would continue for a month before matches resumed—are meticulous. They consist of four stages. The preliminary stage would be testing: to test for the virus and to see the level of immunity built up by some of the players.
Several premier division squads, for instance, have players who tested positive for the virus in March, including Alaves, Espanyol and Valencia. Players would receive daily serology and antibody tests. If a player tests positive, he will be isolated.
Training would resume in three phases: two weeks of individual training, where training times would be staggered so there would be a maximum of six players on a pitch at any one time. No more than two players would be allowed in the gym at the same time.
Coaching staff would have to wear gloves and face masks, while players would also be required to do so until they get onto the pitch. After training, they would go straight home to shower, bringing with them the gear required for the following day's training in sealed, biodegradable bags.
This would be followed by a phase of small group sessions before the final phase of full-squad sessions. During these phases, players wouldn't be allowed to return home—they'd be cocooned at their club's training ground, residency or a nearby hotel. There would be no communal social areas—as is common, for example, at pre-season training camps. Players would have to return to their rooms after each training session.
There is also a loose end to tie up before returning to training. Over the last few days, agents have been unable to answer a recurring question from their players: are their lungs (and future playing careers) at risk, as scientific studies from Hong Kong and Wuhan have detected loss of up to 30 per cent in some recovered coronavirus patients?
Matchday protocol has yet to be agreed too. According to Rafael Ramos, president of the Spanish Association for Football Team Doctors, footballs and playing surfaces would have to be sterilised before games, at half-time and after matches. There would be at least a 72-hour gap between games.
Matches would also be played behind doors. In fact, Tebas has hinted that it is unlikely there will be fans at La Liga's games again until 2021. Inevitably, the thought of playing games without fans will take from the experience—although some fans are trying to be philosophical about this imposition.
"If games have to be played without fans, so be it," says David Gonzalez, a season ticket holder at Atletico Madrid and president of Atletica Mostoles, one of Atletico's supporters' club.
"Obviously the first thing we have to think about is people's health. Until they find a very good way to manage this virus—like a card to prove you've immunity—or a vaccine, it will be very difficult to have games with fans in the terraces.
"Of course, it would be very strange to see games on television in front of the empty stadiums—if that happens, but it would be a small step forward towards some degree of normality returning. It'd be better than nothing."
Footballers, too, would find it odd. There is an adrenaline rush that comes from playing in front of 50,000 manic fans and the feeling of scoring a goal in a packed stadium like the Camp Nou or, say, Valencia's fabled Mestalla with its steeply elevated stands.
"I remember when I played with Real Betis our stadium was closed for a few games [in 2007]," says Damia. "We had to play [Sevilla] at Getafe's stadium, as a neutral venue, and it was horrible. It's not the same at all for players. The pressure is not there. Your motivation drops. It's so strange.
"You lose the advantage of the support you get from a home crowd. You're not screaming at each other. You can really feel the difference in the atmosphere. Professional football has been built for something, and the main thing is the show—the spectacle. When you can see the whole stadium is empty, it's just sad."
If the season is concluded over the summer, Real Madrid will likely play their home games at the Alfredo Di Stefano Stadium—which is at their Valdebebas training facility on the outskirts of Madrid—to facilitate construction works at the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium.
Real Madrid's reserve team, Castilla, normally plays at the 6,000-seater stadium, which uses the same grass as the Bernabeu and has the same pitch dimensions, too.
"Not to play in front of your fans will be a problem for everybody," says Ramis, who is a former manager of the Castilla side. "In the case of Real Madrid, it will be the same. It will be a drawback for home games. When the Bernabeu is full of madridistas, it's a very intimidating place to play.
"If stadiums can't have fans, though, it makes sense for Real Madrid not to play at the Bernabeu—not only to facilitate the renovations that will be happening at the Bernabeu, but because of the greater expenses that comes with opening a bigger stadium when fans won't be allowed to come in anyway.
"The Di Stefano Stadium has perfect dimensions. It's more protected and isolated from a hygiene point of view. The players will feel more comfortable playing there than in a big stadium that is empty. It seems a good idea to me."
For now, things are up in the air. In his daily coronavirus briefing on Sunday, Spain's health minister Salvador Illa sounded a pessimistic note, saying: "I cannot say now if professional football will be able to restart before the summer. It would be reckless of me."
La Liga's plans to use daily coronavirus testing kits—which requires government approval—have been criticised by Spain's players' association, AFE, which argues there is a greater need for the tests to be used elsewhere in Spain to fight the pandemic.
It is a sentiment that has been echoed by a statement from players at Racing Santander who believe it would be "unethical" to put footballers before healthcare workers on the frontline when there are testing kit shortages.
As it stands, if the 2019-20 season is annulled, La Liga would be free to explore alternatives—to be decided by the Royal Spanish Football Federation and rubber-stamped by UEFA—about how best to decide the results of the season, which includes an option for "playoffs" to decide who would fill the league's UEFA Champions League qualifying slots.
If and when La Liga returns, it will, however, provide a huge morale boost for people—whether it's in the summer, September or even later—as football is part of the lifeblood in Spain.
"Football carries a weight and significance that is huge for society here," says Mateu. "You don't find Spanish people buying a T-shirt for a museum or merchandising for a cinema, but every football fan buys a shirt for his or her team—no matter how much it costs. Nobody stops having dinner or lunch here because they're going to a concert, but in Spain a lot of people won't eat their dinner if their team loses.
"Football for a lot of Spanish people isn't a sport or a business, it's a feeling. Just like it is in, say, in England—except it's all week, not just at weekends. This is why it's so important that football returns, not only because it's a distraction from people's problems, and this coronavirus, but because people feel like their football club belongs to them."
Follow Richard on Twitter: @Richard_Fitz
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Will La Liga Resume or Be Annulled? The Plan to Restart Football in Spain - Bleacher Report
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