ANKARA

The football returned to Spain on Saturday a week after La Liga was suspended over the coronavirus pandemic.

The First Division players are competing this weekend in an online FIFA tournament to entertain Spanish citizens as countrywide lockdown completes a week.

The e-tournament was organized by Spanish streamer and influencer Ibai with the participation of 19 footballers who each represent their teams, with the narration of Manolo Lama, Antoni Daimiel, Miguel Angel Roman, and Ruben Martin.

The organization aims to collect €100,000 (some $108,000) for UNICEF's fight against COVID-19 and donations will be open for the next two days. So far more than $14,000 have been collected.

The successful idea attracted millions of viewers, nearly 12 million watching the live broadcast now.

The footballers participated in the FIFA league are: Marco Asensio, Adnan Januzaj, Marcos Llorente, Sergi Roberto, Jason Remeseiro, Borja Iglesias, Manu Morlanes, Carlos Soler, Jackson Arley Martinez, Aitor Ruibal, Pedro Porro, Lucas Perez, Kevin Vazquez, Adrian Embarba, Erik Exposito, Raul Garcia, Sergio Reguilon, Gorka Guruzeta, and Carlos Clerc.

The tournament, where players compete to advance to the group of first eight today, will continue Sunday with quarterfinals, semifinals and final, starting at 6.30 p.m. local time (1730GMT), and will be broadcast live on Ibai's Twitch channel.

Spain is one of the most affected nations by the pandemic, with nearly 25,000 confirmed cases and over 1,300 fatalities, according to the Spanish Health Ministry. In all, a total of 2,125 people diagnosed with the disease have recovered.