FIFA 20 coronavirus charity tournament featuring Barcelona, Real Madrid & La Liga stars gets under way

While the majority of leagues around the world have been suspended due to measures put in place to slow the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, La Liga football continues to go ahead this weekend in the form of a charity tournament on FIFA 20.

Organised by Spanish video game streamer Ibai Llanos, the influencer invited each of the Primera Division sides to nominate a single player to represent their teams in a 20-club tournament that runs from Friday March 20 to Sunday March 22.

Once each club had nominated their player, a draw was made – in a rather unorthodox manner, it should be said, with Llanos pulling names from a cooking pot whilst donning his house robe – to see which of the Liga stars would be facing off against each other.

Three matches took place on Friday, with former Arsenal forward Lucas Perez booking his place in the next round after his Alaves side beat Celta Vigo – represented by Kevin Vazquez – 4-1, with Perez's in-game character claiming all four strikes.

The other matches saw Leganes' Aitor Ruibal overcome Real Valladolid's Pedro Porro 5-3, and Espanyol's Adrian Embarba beaten 6-3 by Eibar's Edu Exposito.

Still to play are Ruben Garcia (Osasuna), Sergio Reguilon (Sevilla), Gorka Guruzeta (Athletic Bilbao), Carlos Clerc (Levante), Adnan Januzaj (Real Sociedad), Marcos Llorente (Atletico Madrid), Sergi Roberto (Barcelona), Jason (Getafe), Borja Iglesias (Real Betis), Manu Morlanes (Villarreal), Carlos Soler (Valencia), Jose Antonio Martinez (Granada) and Marco Asensio (Real Madrid).

The tournament serves not only to bring entertainment to football fans amid mass self-isolation protocols, but also to help raise money in battling the novel Covid-19 coronavirus, with all proceeds – currently in the thousands of Euros – all being donated to charity.

And while all of the matches can be watched via Llanos' Twitch account, they can also be viewed through La Liga's official social channels as well, with the Primera Division making the match-ups available through Facebook.

The second round of fixtures kick off at 5pm UK (1pm US ET) on Saturday, with Sunday seeing the quarter-finals (5:30pm UK/1:30pm US ET), semi-finals (7:30pm UK/3:30pm US ET) and the grand finale (8:30pm UK/4:30pm US ET).