Soccer-Colombia league to restart in September, gov't says

Colombia's top football league will restart play in September, sports minister Ernesto Lucena said on Friday, though games will take place without spectators. The league was suspended in March due to the coronavirus pandemic. "Today the good news for Colombia is that the third week of September at the latest we'll have football," Lucena said during President Ivan Duque's nightly TV broadcast.

Colombia's top football league will restart play in September, sports minister Ernesto Lucena said on Friday, though games will take place without spectators. The league was suspended in March due to the coronavirus pandemic.

"Today the good news for Colombia is that the third week of September at the latest we'll have football," Lucena said during President Ivan Duque's nightly TV broadcast. "It will be closed door - we've said that from the beginning - there will not be capacity for the public." Colombia, which will finish more than five months of lockdown at the end of the month, is approaching 600,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus and 19,000 deaths.