Major League Soccer to begin allowing individual player workouts

Real Salt Lake forward Corey Baird (10) tracks down the ball against the New York Red Bulls in Sandy on Saturday, March 7, 2020. | Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News

SALT LAKE CITY — It’s a mile of steps away from being able to return to game action, but Major League Soccer on Friday announced that beginning May 6, players will be allowed to use outdoor team training fields for voluntary individual workouts if the government policies of the markets they’re in allow it.

Given the state of Utah’s move Friday to relax some restrictions for gathering at public places, it appears Real Salt Lake players will be allowed to go to the team’s facility, Zions Bank Training Center in Herriman (the RSL organization sent the announcement from MLS), as it has a bunch of outdoor fields.

While players will be allowed to go to facilities if they choose, MLS outlined a huge list of things clubs and players either must or must not do if they go. Of note, players must not go inside locker rooms, team gyms and team training rooms.

Before players go, teams must submit to the league an outline of how they will accomplish nine different health and safety protocols.

• Restricting training facility access to essential staff only, with specific staff listed in the plan.
• Sanitization and disinfection plans for all training equipment and spaces, including disinfection of any equipment used by players (balls, cones, goals) between every session.
• Completion of a standard screening assessment survey by each player prior to every arrival at the training site, and temperature checks upon arrival at the facility.
• Staggered player and staff arrivals and departures, with designated parking spaces to maintain maximum distance between vehicles.
• Player use of personal protective equipment from the parking lot to the field, and again on return to the parking lot.
• Staff use of the appropriate personal protective equipment throughout training, while also maintaining a minimum distance of 10 feet from players at all times.
• Hand-washing and disinfectant stations for required use before and after individual workouts.
• Clubs will have the use of the outdoor fields at their training facility, divided into a maximum of four quadrants per field. A maximum of one player per quadrant may participate per training session with no equipment sharing or playing (passing, shooting) between players.
• An emergency action plan for all COVID-19 related issues.

All plans must be reviewed and approved by club medical staff and a local infectious disease expert before they are submitted to MLS.

The leaguewide moratorium on small group and full team training remains in place through Friday, May 15.

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