La Liga

LaLiga will use a video analysis program to help it determine if a player is likely to have infected a teammate or opponent if they test positive for the coronavirus once the season re-starts, according to a draft protocol drawn up by the league.

The protocol, seen by Reuters, was sent out to clubs in Spain's top two divisions on Monday and is an updated version of the document clubs received earlier this month.

After beginning individual training at club facilities earlier this month, Spain moved one step closer to the resumption of LaLiga and Segunda División play after teams began training in groups of up to 10 players on Monday.

According to LaLiga president Javier Tebas, the league is still hoping to return to action on June 12, but clubs will need the approval of the government’s department of health before advancing from small groups to full training.

Regardless, Tebas said that LaLiga has taken inspiration from Germany’s successful return to the pitch.

The moment we have all been waiting for has finally arrived. Football is slowly coming back as players are beginning to go back to semi-normal training regimes. As some countries have been lifting their lockdown restrictions, some teams have taken full advantage and are beginning to get back to work. 

BARCELONA — Lionel Messi believes he is better off not thinking too much about the risk of being infected by the coronavirus as Spanish soccer clubs step up their return to activity, saying he looks forward to getting back to playing matches.

Messi and his Barcelona teammates have been back at the club's training ground conducting individual sessions since last week, following LaLiga's four-phase protocol for returning to activity since it was halted in March due to the pandemic.

Joan Laporta has said he will seek to bring former manager Pep Guardiola back to Barcelona if his bid to return as president of the LaLiga club in 2021 is successful, Spanish media reported. 

Laporta was Barcelona president from 2003 to 2010 and was at the helm when Guardiola was promoted from the youth team to manager of the senior team in 2008. 

A shy village boy who could not bear to leave his parents' bed, Andrés Iniesta may have seemed an unlikely candidate to become one of the best footballers of all time, but anyone who saw him play rarely had serious doubts. 

Iniesta, who turns 36 today, weaved his magic for Barcelona for 16 years and was one of the architects of the club's greatest era, playing a defining role as they won 32 trophies including nine Spanish titles and four Champions League crowns. 

Five players in Spain's top two divisions have tested positive for COVID-19 since clubs began testing players and staff members last week, organizing body LaLiga said in a statement on Sunday. 

LaLiga said the players would remain at their homes where they would continue individual training before being tested again "in the next few days" to determine whether they can return to their club's training ground. 

BARCELONA — Barcelona's women's team was officially declared champion of Spain's Liga Iberdrola on Friday after the national soccer federation's executive committee agreed to end all non-professional competitions due to the COVID-19 pandemic.