The Spanish Federation of American Football, (Federación Española de Fútbol Americano, FEFA), has announced that the remaining games of the 2020 season have now been fully cancelled.
The Spanish league had reached the halfway point of the regular season with the teams having played five games on March 12 when all play was suspended due to the health crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. At the time, two teams were undefeated with 5-0 records, the Badalona Dracs and Las Rozas Black Demons.
In a meeting of FEFA, headed by the president of the federation, Enrique García de Castro, this past weekend, it was resolved that
- The games of the 2020 season are permanently cancelled and therefore those already started will not be continued.
- There will be no champion in any of the leagues.
- The “ranking” of this season will be maintained as of the date of the temporary suspension.
- There will be no promotion or relegation at any level
The decision by FEFA comes as many countries are announcing a return to play in the fall in some form of limited season.
Coronavirus in Spain
Spain ended its state of emergency on Sunday after three months of lockdown amid the coronavirus pandemic. People can now freely move around the whole country to see relatives and friends for the first time since March 14, when the state of emergency was first declared. Lockdown measures have been rolled back gradually and on different scales in different regions. Border restrictions have also been lifted from Sunday for all European countries, including the UK and those in the Schengen area, with travellers now free to enter Spain without having to quarantine for 14 days.
Still, there were a total of 293, 352 cases of COVID-19 recorded in Spain since the first cases were reported on February 15. Since then, 28,323 people died as the result of the coronavirus, among the highest number of fatalities in the world.