Liga MX giant Chivas does not want to see the 2020 Clausura season canceled. And amid growing speculation that it will be, the club has produced a document designed to convince other clubs that the season should be finalized before the 2020 Apertura begins.
The Guadalajara club called players back to the training center on Monday to carry out COVID-19 tests with a view to getting back to training, with Liga MX play suspended on March 15 due to the coronavirus outbreak.
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Reports have surfaced in Mexico indicating that there is growing momentum towards canceling the Clausura and beginning the Apertura in late July, but Chivas will argue in the next club owners' meeting, moved from Wednesday to Friday, that the season should continue.
A 28-page document leaked in part to various Mexican media outlets and in full to El Universal, spells out a comprehensive plan to restart the season on July 1 and is set to be revised by other club owners.
Under the plan, clubs would test players and staff for COVID-19 and, if everything goes well, return to training on June 1, leaving 30 days for a preseason of sorts.
The seven remaining rounds of matches -- 63 games -- in the regular season would come to a close on July 30, with the playoffs beginning on Aug. 5 and a new champion crowned Aug. 23. After that, there would be a brief break, before the start of the 2020 Apertura began in early September, with that season ending in mid-December.
The plan contains an option of playing the regular season in one city if needed and detailed protocol about restricting the number of people in training sessions and stadiums, keeping a safe distance apart and not allowing group celebrations or spitting.
How realistic the plan is will likely depend on meetings with Mexico's health authorities, with the country registering 54,346 positive cases and 5,666 deaths so far and showing significant regional disparities in the numbers.
The government health czar Hugo Lopez-Gatell warned on Wednesday that the epidemic may only have just begun for states such as Jalisco -- where Chivas is based -- and Nuevo Leon -- where Tigres and Monterrey are located.
Santos Laguna announced that its players had also been tested for COVID-19 over the first three days of this week.