La Liga will officially restart on June 11 with Seville derby

La Liga’s June 11th restart date was officially approved today by the National Sports Council. The first match will be the Seville derby.

It’s official! La Liga will restart on June 11th, nearly three months after the league was forced to shutdown due to the coronavirus pandemic. While Spain had previously announced that sports could resume on June 8th, on Friday the league came to an official agreement with the Spanish government’s National Sports Council (CSD) that will allow the first and second tier of Spanish soccer to complete their 2019-20 seasons.

“The Spanish football federation and La Liga have agreed, as part of the Contact Group formed together with the National Sports Council, the format of the eleven remaining matchdays to complete La Liga Santander and La Liga Smartbank [the first and second divisions],” the official statement from the CSD says.

The first division will restart with one of the best rivalry fixtures in all of Spain: a matchup between Seville and Real Betis on Thursday, June 11th. With 11 rounds of matches left in the 2019-2020 season, matches will be played every day for over a month to enable the season to finish on July 19th.

Matches will be played behind closed doors and will adhere to a strict safety protocol approved by La Liga and the Ministry of Health to keep players and staff safe. Some players are concerned that the rush to return to the pitch puts players at a higher risk for injuries. However, the players’ union did ensure that teams will have at least 72 hours between matches.

“The important thing will be when the season finishes, although we’ll only be able to congratulate ourselves when we start the following season,” La Liga president Javier Tebas said. “God willing, that day will be 12 September and hopefully we’ll be able to say we have overcome this most difficult period, but at least we will be better prepared.”

Currently, Barcelona, the defending champions, sit two points ahead of Real Madrid at the top of the La Liga standings. Real Madrid’s first match after the restart will be against Eibar, while Barcelona will face off against Real Mallorca.