COVID-19: La Liga, other football leagues in Spain postponed indefinitely

Spain's premier domestic tournament, La Liga has been postponed indefinitely due to the coronavirus pandemic, the country's governing body for football RFEF said on Monday.

The federation also announced the postponement of other professionals leagues in the country. It has been said that the tournaments will only commence when the government says there is no health risk.

"The Monitoring Commission established by the current RFEF-LaLiga Coordination Agreement agrees with the suspension of professional football competitions until the authorities of the Government of Spain and the General Administration of the State consider that they can be resumed without creating any health risk," the La Liga said in an official statement.

"Both the RFEF and LaLiga wish to express our greatest public gratitude to all those who are dedicating their best efforts to provide essential services to the Spanish people and also share our condolences for all the deceased and a warm embrace from the world of soccer to the many families that are losing loved ones," it added.

On March 12, organisers of La Liga had announced the postponement of the league for two weeks, however, the league has been suspended indefinitely.

Last week, Valencia CF's Ezequiel Garay had become the first player in La Liga to test positive for COVID-19.

On Sunday, the number of COVID-19 cases in Spain increased by 3,646 over the past 24 hours to 28,572, while the death toll reached 1,720 since the outbreak in the country, the Health Ministry said.

Spain is the second country in Europe in terms of the detected cases and coronavirus-related fatalities and the third on a global scale after China and Italy.