Football
Reuters 4y

Argentina FA suspends relegation for two years due to coronavirus

Argentina declared its football season over on Monday and said there will be no relegation for two seasons because of the disruption caused by the new coronavirus outbreak.

"We are ending the tournaments," Claudio Tapia, president of the Argentine Football Association, told TNT Sports, adding that the decision will be ratified officially on Tuesday.

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"The idea is to restart play but when authorities allow it and with maximum security."

Argentina has reported 3,892 cases of COVID-19 and 192 dead, according to local figures.

On Saturday, President Alberto Fernandez extended its mandatory nationwide quarantine period until May 10.

Tapia said promotion will continue but he did not clarify from which divisions.

Relegation, which is decided by a complicated calculus of points per game taken over a three-year period, will be suspended this season and next.

The decision means the Copa Superliga, a 24-team tournament scheduled to end in a playoff in May, has been cancelled. Only one round of games had taken place when the lockdown began.

"The 2019-20 season is over. The full season standings will determine the Copa Libertadores and Copa Sudamericana spots. There will be two places still to determine for the international tournaments since we are cancelling the Copa Superliga and the Copa Argentina. We will established in the future the mechanisms to allocate the remaining spots according to the public health guidance," Tapia said.

The first division championship was completed the first weekend of March, with River Plate sealing its third league title in four years.

The decision to suspend relegation will be welcomed by the bottom three clubs, one of whom, Gimnasia, is coached by Diego Maradona.

Maradona took over at Gimnasia in September 2019 when the La Plata club was bottom of the division and although their results have improved they were still destined to fall into the second tier.

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