Peru sets July date for football's restart

Lima, June 9 (IANS) Peru's first division football clubs will have more than seven weeks to prepare for their return to competition after the COVID-19 hiatus.In a video conference call conducted by the Peruvian Football Federation (FPF), club representatives on Monday approved a timetable that envisages a restart of the Liga 1 Apertura tournament on July 31, reports Xinhua news agency.Players will undergo testing in the coming days and must initially train individually before moving to small groups. Entire squad training will be permitted from early July.Peru's top flight has been suspended since March 12, a day after the World Health Organisation declared COVID-19 a global pandemic.The Andean country has reported more than 200,000 confirmed cases and over 5,000 deaths resulting from the virus.
--IANS aak/bbh