Austrian football could return in mid-May, says league chief

The Austrian Bundesliga could make its return to action from its coronavirus-forced suspension as early as mid-May, the league's president has revealed.

Teams from the top division will be able to restart training next week, albeit in a scaled back format of just six players at a time, and Christian Ebenbauer is refusing to rule out matches being played behind closed doors and finishing the season by the end of June.

"Personally I think that it's absolutely possible that we could restart playing matches in mid-May," Ebenbauer told reporters.

This week Austria was one of the first European countries to relax some restrictions put in place to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, as the disease is in sharp decline in the country.

There are 10 rounds of matches remaining in the Austrian Bundesliga season, with LASK Linz three points ahead of RB Salzburg, who have won the last six league titles.