News emerged over the weekend that both the English Premier League and EFL Championship will be back by the middle point of June.
More leagues are beginning to emerge from the break and even Major League Soccer and the National Women’s Soccer League in North America have plans to resume in June. This week sees several leagues kick off with play resuming to finish of the campaigns that were interrupted by the coronavirus.
Which football leagues will return this week? Let’s take a look at the divisions ready to start play once more.
On Wednesday night, June 3, the Portuguese Liga NOS will return to action with two games. The top-flight of Portuguese football returns with 10 matchdays left to play.
Porto are currently one point ahead of rival Benfica in the race for the league title. The two clubs will not play one another again this term, so picking up points will be vital for their title charges.
Once play resumes and if no problems arise, the Liga NOS will hold games nearly every night of the week. The league will finish on July 26.
The Danish Superliga gets back into full effect this week after a set of five matches over the weekend. Monday, June 1 sees four games from the Danish top flight get underway with matches being played every two hours from 13:00 to give fans the chance to watch.
FC Midtjylland lead the division by 12 points over rival FC Copenhagen. Both clubs will be in action on June 1 with FC Copenhagen having the chance to narrow the gap to the top of the table.
The Israeli Premier League also kicks off on June 1 with games resuming. The league is in its split format stage with the top six being the ‘championship’ group while the bottom eight are the ‘relegation’ pack. Maccabi Tel Aviv are the frontrunners in the league 11 points ahead of Maccabi Haifa.
Austria’s Bundesliga is also kicking off this week to continue a strong start to the month with sports returning. The Austrian Bundesliga kicks off again on June 2 with teams entering the second stage of the campaign. The league has split its 12 teams into a ‘championship’ and ‘relegation’ round.
Red Bull Salzburg lead the way currently but were helped by a 12-point penalty to LASK Linz after they violated coronavirus pandemic protocol.
Here are the dates we have confirmed for football’s restart:
Denmark -- May 28
Poland -- May 29
Serbia, Ukraine -- May 30
Austria -- June 2
Portugal -- June 3
Bulgaria, Slovenia -- June 5
Croatia, Greece -- June 6
Spain -- week beginning June 8
Turkey -- June 12
Sweden -- June 14
Norway -- June 16
England (Premier League) -- June 17
England (EFL Championship) -- June 20
Italy -- June 20
Russia -- June 21
Finland -- July 1