East Bengal, Mohun Bagan Foreign Players Leave For Amsterdam; Sassuolo Players Run on Empty Pitches as Serie A Training Resumes and More (Football Round-up)
East Bengal and Mohun Bagan foreign players pose for a photograph before boarding the bus to travel to New Delhi from Kolkata on May 3.
East Bengal and Mohun Bagan's foreign players and coaches, who were stranded in India during the lockdown, reached New Delhi from Kolkata by bus and checked into a hotel near the airport, East Bengal's coach Mario Rivera said.
"Yes we have reached safely," Rivera said. "We have our flight at 3 a.m. tomorrow (May 5) morning.”.
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The foreign players of the two clubs started the journey on Sunday morning around 9:30 a.m. and checked into a hotel at Aerocity around 3 PM on May 4, a source said.
The players, most of them Spanish, were stuck in Kolkata due to the nation-wide lockdown that was announced on March 25.
The Spanish Embassy is taking care of their needs at the moment and all the players and coaches are going to fly to Amsterdam, the Netherlands, onboard a KLM KL 872 (special Dutch Airways flight) arranged by the Embassy of Netherlands. From Amsterdam, the players will then travel back to their respective hometowns.
Serie A Training Resumes
Sassuolo players were the first to hit the pitch in Serie A, six at a time, and trained alone.
Sassuolo became the first top-flight Italian club to resume training on May 4, after restrictions were imposed. Things, though, are not close to normal and only a handful of players trained.
The Serie A club took to Twitter and posted a video of players exercising individually, with each having half a pitch for themselves. To take measures while training, the club has limited the number of players to six at a time divided into three pitches and has made training optional.
The government gave players permission to start training at an individual level inside the club premises but team exercises halted till May 18. A resumption of Serie A is yet to be decided.
La Liga To Test Players
La Liga clubs plan resumption of training, to test players beforehand.
La Liga started testing its players for coronavirus ahead of basic training resumption for the first time in almost two months.
Basic training has been allowed to resume in Spain after the government announced some relaxation in lockdown measures that had been in place since mid-March.
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Spanish league players are likely to get back to training later in the week after they get tested for coronavirus, and only after the clubs' training facilities are properly prepared and disinfected. All players, coaches and club employees involved in the initial training phase will be tested two days before individual practice starts.
The tests are going to start from Tuesday, and the league plans to conduct them daily after the individual training sessions.
Fans Will Have to Wait: English FA
The Chairman of English Football Association, Greg Clarke does not think that fans will be allowed in the stadium anytime soon and has also warned that the Covid-19 crisis could cost the governing body around $372 million over the next four year.
In the letter to the FA council Clarke stated "With social distancing in place for some time to come we do face substantial changes to the whole football ecosystem. For example, it's hard to foresee crowds of fans, who are the lifeblood of the game, returning to matches any time soon."
Meanwhile, the Football Safety Officers Association (FSOA) has said that club safety officers are worried about the lack of consultation over the Premier League’s ‘Project Restart’ that could leave players and officials at risk.
The role of the safety officer appears to be lost in the Project Restart negotiations,” said the FSOA director of operations, Peter Houghton.
“Our concerns in relation to our members and colleagues are that many clubs are pressing on in the restart direction while safety officers have been furloughed or are working from home.
FC Koln Test Players Again
FC Koln players were tested for Coronavirus and all were found negative, says the club.
The Bundesliga club announced on Monday that all FC Koln players tested negative for Covid-19 in the second round.
Earlier on Friday, FC Koln had announced that there were three players at the club — whose names remain undisclosed — had contracted coronavirus and were advised to be under 14 days quarantine procedure.
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"On Sunday, 1. FC Koln had the entire team, as well as the coaching and backroom staff, tested for Covid-19. All tests from the independent laboratory were negative,” a club statement said. "On Monday morning, Markus Gisdol's team will continue to train in groups. Training is not open to the public.
"The medical concept from the DFL [German Football League] sees the regular testing as a prerequisite for the possible continuation of the league,” the statement added. “Only players who have been tested negative twice in succession are allowed to train and play."
Koln midfielder Birger Verstraete criticised the decision to continue training in the aftermath of the positive tests, though he later backtracked on his comments.
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