Beginning Wednesday, May 6, Atlanta United players and the rest of the league may begin to use outdoor team training facilities for individual workouts in compliance with detailed health and safety protocols that were created in consultation with medical and infectious disease experts, the league announced via a press release.
The individual workout protocol does prohibit the players access to the club facilities including but not limited to locker rooms, team gyms, and team training rooms.
MLS suspended all group training since March 12 and as of right now, the league-wide moratorium on small group and full team training remains in place through, and including, Friday, May 15.
The individual workouts are voluntary and must follow a team’s state and local guidelines.
Before beginning an individual workout, a team must submit a plan to MLS that outlines how the team will implement health and safety protocols, including:
- 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.
