TEHRAN – Several Iranian Professional League teams started testing their players for coronavirus on Wednesday ahead of a return to training on Saturday.

The Iran Professional League will resume on June 18, the Iran Football League Organization announced on Monday.

All sports activities in Iran were suspended on March 11, following the outbreak of the COVID-19 coronavirus. The season was halted with nine rounds remaining.

Test results will be analyzed within 48 hours.

Esteghlal and Persepolis football teams, as the most popular Iranian teams, tested their players for Covid-19.  

Some clubs are dissatisfied with the IPL resumption due to the virus threat but Mehrzad Khalilian, head of the Sports Medicine Federation, has said the competition will resume under the terms of a strict health protocol.

Persepolis were leading the standings on 47 points with Sepahan and Tractor 10 behind.

The death toll from the novel coronavirus in Iran surpassed 7,000 on Sunday, while nearly 97,173 positive cases have recovered from the disease.