Sports activities have been suspended since mid-March due to the coronavirus, but the government has decided to allow sports to resume starting 20 June
The Egyptian Premier League will resume on 7 August, the Egyptian Football Association (EFA) announced on Thursday, after almost five months of suspension due to the coronavirus pandemic.
In a statement published on the EFA's website, head of the Competitions Committee Hossam El-Zanati said the season will first restart with the postponed games and that they will soon announce the schedule on two phases.
“The first phase will include the games scheduled to be played from 7 August until the end of the month, and it will be revealed as soon as we reach a final decision regarding Aswan SC stadium as the club requested to play its games in Cairo,” he said.
Aswan is located some 700km south of Cairo in Upper Egypt and the club announced the players will be more tired making such a long journey, especially with the expected busy schedule.
“The second phase of the games are scheduled to be played starting from 1 September until the end of the season. This will be announced shortly after the Confederation of African Football (CAF) decides the final dates of the semi-finals and finals of the African Champions League and the Confederation Cup,” El-Zanati added.
Sports activities have been suspended since mid-March due to the coronavirus, but the government has decided to allow sports to resume starting 20 June, giving the green light for the EFA to resume its competitions as of 25 July.
The EFA and the Ministry of Youth and Sports have implemented a new set of guidelines for precautionary measures including testing, training and medical precautions. The EFA has already finalised its medical tests for most of the clubs including players, trainers and employees. Several teams have already started trainings.
The EFA announced last week that from among all tests, 19 persons turned to be positive and are now in isolation according to the protocol.
Before the current suspension of football activities, holders Ahly were leading the league table with 49 points after playing 17 matches.
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