Six months after the last official match was played in Colombia, football returns with Junior de Barranquilla vs América de Cali for the Superliga.
After six months of football drought in Colombia, the league is finally set to return. The Superliga is first up with a match between 2019 champions Junior de Barranquilla and América de Cali.
The last games were played in the second division on March 12 before the coronavirus crisis put all professional football in Colombia on hold. All the big European leagues and almost the entire world came to a standstill due to the outbreak of COVID-19.
Colombia may have been quick to follow the rest of the world in shutting down the beautiful game, but it has been slow to blow the starting whistle again. Germany was the first major league in the world to restart in May. Since then, leagues throughout the world have gradually been getting players back on the pitch. But Colombia stayed behind, partly due to the country’s August peak of coronavirus cases, but also due to a power struggle within the league federation Dimayor.
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Now the quarantine is over and the problems within the federation seem behind us for the moment, the Colombian ministries of sport and health have struck an agreement on the return to football. It won’t quite be back to normal yet, as fans won’t be allowed in the stadium and a strict biosecurity protocol will be in operation. But at least Colombian football is back.
On September 8, the first leg will kick off at 7.30 pm in Barranquilla’s second stadium Romelio Martínez. The return will be on September 11 at 7 pm in the Pascual Guerrero stadium in Cali.
After that, the league will restart from where it left off in March, but more details have yet to be announced.