The calendar sudoku

The league Since last weekend, he has been working on five possible alternatives to square the restart of his championship with that of the rest of the countries and with European competitions. The fact that the Eurocup as of June 2021 it has made things much easier, although Javier Thebes had already designed different calendar sketches to present to the UEFA, regardless of this decision that was made last Tuesday. Luis Gil, director of competitions at LaLiga, has been the architect who, together with Thebes, has developed all the new scenarios.

As AS has learned, the proposed alternatives that have already begun to be debated have fluctuated from the most optimistic, which would be to start on April 23, during the week, to the most pessimistic, which would not being able to restart the championship and make drastic decisions together with the Federation to designate the champion, if there is one or if it is left deserted, the ascents and descents. This is the situation that everyone wants to avoid since it would be necessary to put themselves in the hands of UEFA to decide also who will go to Europe next year without having finished the season on the pitch. A scenario that for the RFEF, in the words of Luis Rubiales, “it would be totally unfair”.

Thebes has admitted to this newspaper that “comments have already been made to those five alternatives presented.” Now they will continue to work on the UEFA reduced committee to take a good look at all the possibilities. “Until late May we have time to start competing,” says the president of LaLiga. Therefore, several of his alternatives focused on restarting Spanish football in that month, when it is already assumed that the coronavirus contagion curve will be in decline.

The first option is to play again the weekend of May 2 and 3. And if it is not possible, on the 13th and the 14th, again during the week. Even so, Thebes has also offered more possibilities with which it would no longer be feasible to end on June 30, as desired, since this could cause problems with the contracts of the players that, on the other hand, as announced yesterday Iusport, FIFA is going to review urgently. Thus, it is not ruled out having to finish in July or even in summer if necessary.

What is clear, whatever the calendar plan chosen, is that it will be necessary to play during the week several times. And that, in addition, the Champions and the Europa League could also be disputed on weekends. “Not only does the League exist and we have to coordinate with the rest of the competitions. In the Champions there are five leagues involved and in the Europa League, 11. It may be the case that the League is played during the week when there are Champions League matches and on the contrary, that there are Champions League matches on days when national competitions are also held in any country, “says Tebas. UEFA is not yet clear whether the European competitions will be played in the usual format or will even have to be reduced on the fly and play a Final Four in a single venue.

In all the possible scenarios that will be studied, the Second. LaLiga guarantees that all the matches will be played (there are 11 games left as in the First) and that also goes through playing the promotion playoff, which brings such good results to the leading clubs by also having an extra audiovisual income.