A virtual assembly held by Colombia's 36 clubs lasted almost 12 hrs this w/kend.

The idea was to plot how the league that was suspended in March will be restarted.

But at the end of tortuous bickering & amid deep division almost nothing was agreed. Will football return this yr?

First the good news.

League body Dimayor agreed to again allow 7 subs on the bench after voting to reduce number to 5 in Dec 19, then immediately regretting it, moaning it was unfair.

And that was pretty much the only item clubs could agree upon in 11 hours and 34 minutes.

Now the most worrying issue: C-19 testing.

Dimayor invited companies to bid for a £500k contract to provide a lab used by all clubs. Ridiculous limits demanded by Dimayor saw every proposal rejected.

All 36 clubs will now have to find their own lab. Yep, even teams in la B.

It would be completely impractical, a recipe for disaster and would most certainly rule out an Aug/Sept restart. The Ministry of Sport/Health would also surely reject the plan.

But maybe that's in fact the idea. Colombia's small teams don't want a restart, they can't afford it.

As soon as training restarts clubs will have to again begin paying their players. Even at the best of times, several clubs (the same ones time and time again) are notorious for not paying.

And who knows what will happen with expired contracts. Where will this $ come from?

That leads to the real hot potato: international TV rights. And even for Dimayor standards this is a beauty.

Over a year ago clubs were promised $60m. A contract had been signed with a US company to distribute Colombian league rights from 2020-30. The cash was on its way...

Only it wasn't. Back in March Dimayor President, Jorge Enrique Vélez, fought off a coup d'état by pleading: give me another 100 days.

Well 100 days passed and nada.

It turns out the contract was signed with a company that existed only on paper. That $60m will never appear.

And yet it gets better.

Dimayor had already sold its international TV rights to Colombian channel RCN until 2021 for $1m/yr!

Whether tricked or ridiculously naive (some of those at meeting in US couldn't speak English), Presi Veléz has been burnt badly by this sorry ordeal.

There's been a campaign to force him out of office brewing for some time. While 19 voted to back him at Sat's meeting, there were 17 clubs who didn't.

And amid this power struggle, Colombian football suffers; not just the men's game, but amateur footy, the women's game, futsal.

Futsal isn't big in Colombia, but they did host the 2016 World Cup. "We'll develop the game."

Yet Dimayor also agreed to axe the league with 100s of players thrown out of a job.

This, of course, coming just days after Colombia lost the bid to host the Women's WC. How poignant.

What happens now is unclear but there's a growing possibility that football won't return this yr. It can't, there's just too much division.

A meeting will be held within 15 days to decide the format the league will take. But again expect deep discord on issues such as prom/rel.