In light of the recently-eased confinement restrictions that allowed some non-essential services to come back to life in the nation, the Spanish Sports Association has proposed a plan through which the sports world could begin returning to normalcy.
The plan, coined the term Spanish Sport Reconstruction and Activation Plan, Plan de Reconstrucción y Activación del Deporte Español, encompasses a total of 23 measures and 56 recommendations.
The document has been reviewed and approved by the different Spanish sports governing bodies. The measures to be adopted are broken into two different sectors, reconstruction and activation.
RECONSTRUCTION
- Multidisciplinary Sports Hub creation.
- Strategic tourism and sports plan.
- Redefining status quo in sports and society as it applies to the industry.
- Maintenance of athletic scholarships.
- Public support for the national sports governing bodies.
- State donations to the world of sport (all levels).
- New strategies for environmental sustainability.
ACTIVATION (ADMINISTRATIVE AND ECONOMIC)
- Common protocol between the Spanish Sports Council and the various autonomous regions.
- Resolution in terms of electoral processes.
- A concretion in the definition of electoral censuses.
ACTIVATION (ATHLETIC)
- Establishment of a legal security framework system for the different national sports governing bodies.
- To generate international agreements with specific countries in order to ease athletes’ travels.
Given that soccer is considered Spain’s motor when it comes to the sports, Spanish Sports Council president Irene Lozano sat down with Royal Spanish Soccer federation president Luis Rubiales and La Liga president Javier Tebas in a meeting that has come to be known as the Viana Pact (los Pactos de Viana), according to Spanish news agency EFE.
That meeting concluded that Spain’s Health Ministry will have the final say in terms of when athletes can return to practice.
During an earlier meeting this month between Lozano and the presidents for different Spanish sports governing bodies, Lozano reviewed the measures carried out by the CSD since the start of the pandemic, which among others included the repatriation of athletes who were residing overseas, besides discussing information on government regulations as they applied to sport.
Similar to Italy, many companies in Spain, including training facilities, sports governing bodies and club teams were forced to create what is known as an ERTE (Expediente de Regulación Temporal de Empleo), a term that could translate into a furlough in the United States.
Spain has been on national lockdown since March 15 and is planning to remain as such until at least May 9, per Spanish outlet 20 Minutos.
On April 13, Spain began lifting the national lockdown as the number of new cases is decreasing. Some non-essential services have started coming back to life as the nation neared the one-month-mark since the lockdown order became effective.
The list of services allowed to resume their activity includes health, security and telecommunication services; construction services; cleaning, surveillance, and maintenance services; public transport; and the judiciary.
Restaurants, gymnasiums, training centers, and leisure services, however, are not allowed to reopen to the public as of yet. Some Spanish elite sports teams, such as Real Sociedad (soccer), attempted to resume their training, but Spanish Sports Secretary Irene Lozano intervened in order to prevent that from happening.
During these past few days, the nation has seen a decrease in the number of fatalities, reaching its lowest daily death toll since March 26, according to El País.
According to the website worldometers.info, the nation stands second in terms of total cases associated with COVID-19 as they have reported a total of 219,764 infections and 22,524 deaths. Another 92,355 have reportedly recovered from the virus.
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