AFE ask Spain's Ministry of Health and CSD to give them guarantees to return to training AFE | Coronavirus To avoid Real Sociedad and Fuenlabrada precedent

The Spanish Footballers' Association (AFE) have sent two letters to Spain's Ministry of Health and National Sports Council (CSD) to seek guarantees regarding players return to training.

Following the recent incidents of Real Sociedad and Fuenlabrada, who were both denied a return to training, AFE want to be certain that the Spanish government have given the green light to clubs who plan to ask their players to train in their facilities.

"The Spanish Footballers' Association have sent two letters to the Ministry of Health, Consumption and Social Welfare and the National Sports Council (CSD), in which they convey the thoughts of the First and Second Division football players in relation to health in the face of a hypothetical return to activity," AFE's statement read.

"In these letters, sent to Salvador Illa (Minister of Health, Consumption and Social Welfare) and Irene Lozano (president of the CSD), the football players make clear that 'health is the most important thing, not as an individual element, but as a sense of collective responsibility for all of us who participate in the field of football, without forgetting our families.'

"The group requests that 'the sports authority - CSD - have been in coordination with the health authority, giving us guarantees regarding this de-escalation after the competition,' stressing that 'as a group, we are concerned in a pandemic scenario that this process of incorporation into the routine of the competition is not marked with clear and determined rules from the Ministry of Health, which is what gives us full guarantee to avoid situations of undesirable infections, affecting a specific group, influencing in the sequential forecasts regarding the different phases, among which are group training, and especially phase four, before the competition' and taking into account the precedent of last week that occurred with respect to Real Sociedad and Fuenlabrada.

"In these writings, due to responsibility, it is requested that occupational risk prevention measures be specified, taking into account that this activity is within a group.

"And in relation to tests and other types of tests, footballers want to be certain on whether they can be done by the health authorities, taking into account that there is a demand from society, and they are jointly responsible in this regard with what the authorities determine, as they are tests that public administrations must know about and authorise."