League's resumption approved

“It’s amazing news. The government’s green light to resume training sessions enables us to complete the plan we have been working on over the past four weeks with the crisis committee experts. If no unexpected complications arise and the country’s situation keeps on improving, we will be ready for the league to resume on May 29^th,” emphasised Marcin Animucki, Ekstraklasa’s chairman.

“We have also received UEFA’s confirmation that we can continue the league competition until July 20th. Hence, the pessimistic scenario I have discussed recently won’t become a reality, and we will not only be able to continue the season, but also finish the campaign properly. This success is a result of our hard work and great cooperation with Zbigniew Boniek, the chairman of PZPN, who was very committed to resuming the competition. Marcin Mastalerek, the vice-chairman of Ekstraklasa, also played a key role as a contact between the crisis committee and government administration. The plans prepared by the crisis committee and club representatives were the fundaments of this favourable decision. I would like to thank everyone for their engagement. We have earned the trust of the government and their green light for football has gained strong substantive support, hence we can go back to training despite these challenging circumstances,” added Animucki.

According to the guidelines created by UEFA, every national football federation is supposed to do everything in their power to finish the season as per normal. PKO BP Ekstraklasa can continue until July 20^th, whereas federations which are ranked in the top 15, can extend their schedule until August 3^rd.

The plan of PKO BP Ekstraklasa’s resumption was prepared by the crisis committee’s working group led by Tomasz Zahorski from Legia Warsaw, which was tasked with designing a realistic scenario of league’s continuation. Zahorski worked alongside club experts, among them professor Krzysztof Pawlaczyk from Lech Poznań, doctor Piotr Żmijewski from Legia Warsaw, sporting directors Marek Jóźwiak from Wisła Płock and Antoni Łukasiewcz from Arka Gdynia, and Michał Dutkiewicz who works as the fitness coach for Korona Kielce. The plan prepared by the group of experts was approved by PZPN’s medical staff led by Jacek Jaroszewski and was then passed on to the Sports Ministry and Health Ministry. Throughout the designing of the plan, the experts took into consideration tactics employed by various European clubs, leagues, and federations, including European Leagues and European Club Association. In addition, the working group collaborated with the Sports Ministry, the Centre of Sports Medicine, and the Sports Institute.

As per the plan, players and coaching staff (50 people per club) will have to follow strict medical and training procedures until the end of the season (or as long as needed) which will enable for the league season to finish in accordance with all safety regulations. At the beginning of this week, all the 50 staff from top-division clubs started their 14-day sports isolation and will be filling in a detailed – and unified for all league clubs – medical survey every day. This procedure has been put in place to help identify any signs of coronavirus infection as early as possible.

“All clubs have already implemented this safety procedure and are reporting the results of daily medical surveys. Now we need to ensure that we follow closely the tasks outlined in the next steps. We all need to put in a lot of effort, however, considering how much work we have already done to finish the league season, there is no doubt that we will do our best to finalise this process successfully. In addition, we also want to use the matches as a demonstration that by being reasonable and sticking to safety measures, you can win the fight with coronavirus,” highlighted Animucki.

Here are the next steps of the league’s resumption in accordance with the plan that has been approved by the government:

03-04.05 – tests for players and coaching staff
04.05 – training sessions in small groups begin
10.05 – full squad training sessions begin
27-28.05 - tests for players, coaching staff and referees
29.05-31.05 – 27^th round of PKO BP Ekstraklasa, i.e. the official resumption of the league
18.07-19.07 - league season end date which enables the Polish clubs to compete in the qualifiers for European competition

Every step outlined in the plan is dependent on the pandemic-related circumstances and the recommendations of Sports and Health Ministries. Matches will be played without a crowd until the government administration lifts the corresponding restrictions. The group of employees who run matchday operations will be reduced to the minimum number possible. Ekstraklasa has already started working on a matchday organisational procedure which will be implemented across all clubs and media partners.