Coronavirus: La Liga Postpones Season

All matches in Spain’s top two divisions – La Liga and La Liga 2 – have been postponed under new plans to combat the spread of coronavirus.

The decision was reached by the Spanish FA, La Liga and Spain’s professional footballers union and comes into effect immediately.

This means Friday’s game between Real Madrid’s and Real Mallorca at the Santiago Bernabeu will no longer hold as will the rest of this weekend’s fixtures.

Prior to this announcement, plans had been in place to play the next two match days behind closed doors but they have now been cancelled in response to a global surge in the pandemic.

The development follows similar measures in Italy and France where the football leagues have also been suspended as countries battle to mitigate the spread of the killer bug.

Italy – Europe’s worst hit country – announced a lockdown of the entire country and Juventus footballer Daniele Rugani became the highest profile footballer to fall prey to the virus on Wednesday.

On Thursday, the English Premier League announced contingency measures to organise games behind closed doors for the rest of the season if required.

And the NBA announced an indefinite suspension of the season after two players tested positive for coronavirus on Thursday.

European inter club competitions have also been impacted with the Champions League last 16 second leg ties involving Valencia and Atalanta as well as PSG and Borussia Dortmund played in empty stadiums on Tuesday and Wednesday respectively.

UEFA cancelled the Europa League last 16 first leg tie between Inter Milan and Getafe after the Spanish team refused to travel to Italy for the fixture.

The encounter between Sevilla and AS Roma was also cancelled following Spanish restrictions on travel from Italy.

It isn’t clear how this would affect Barcelona’s Champions League tie with the Spanish team due to face Napoli at the Camp Nou next week.

Spain has recorded more than 1,600 cases and 36 deaths coronavirus.