The Bulgarian feels as if his former club should be crowned champions if no more games are played in 2019-20
Former Barcelona star Hristo Stoichkov believes it would be fairer to end the La Liga now, scrap relegation and promote two teams from the second division amid the coronavirus pandemic.
La Liga has been postponed indefinitely due to Covid-19, which has led to more than 12,640 deaths in Spain and over 69,450 globally.
Reigning champions Barcelona held a two-point lead over bitter rivals Real Madrid when the league was stopped, while Cadiz and Real Zaragoza occupied the promotion places in Segunda Division.
Stoichkov – who won five La Liga titles and a European Cup among other honours during his time at Camp Nou – feels Barca should be crowned champions if no more games are played in 2019-20.
“If we see how the situation is, with the matches which have been played, it would be fairer to end the La Liga season as it is now,” Stoichkov told Cope program Tiempo de Juego.
“Many teams could stay up at the bottom, there are a lot of matches left.
“They could leave the league as it is, have no relegation and the top two from Segunda could get promoted to have a 22 team league. Because they have also done a lot of work to win many matches.”
La Liga matches will be played behind closed doors if a solution can be found to get Spanish football back underway.
As things stand, there is still no date set for any such return, but senior figures at La Liga and the Spanish FA (RFEF) acknowledge that a gradual return to normality would have to be enacted.
Sources close to the situation indicated to Goal that fans would continue to be banned from stadiums to prevent another sharp outbreak of coronavirus in Spain as a result of such large crowds gathering.
Jaume Roures, the chief of one of La Liga’s broadcast partners Mediapro also concurred that supporter attendance was unlikely when the competition resumed.
“I hope football returns in July and I say July because, among other things, everyone’s health must be guaranteed,” he told Cadena COPE last week.
“It will return without an audience, surely, but before that they have to do a pre-season. After so long at home, they can’t go out and play as if nothing happened.”
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