The decision was made after a long meeting that held at the arbitration council on Monday night.
“All those present debated, democratically, the suggestions for the restart dates of the Rio Cup, to be started after an official endorsement by the government. If this does not come by the 17th, as soon as it happens, the Rio Cup will be resumed the next day,” FERJ said in a statement.
FERJ now await the government to approve the laid down safety protocols put in place for the resumption of matches.
Following the greenlight of the competition, games can be expected to start almost immediately.
Flamengo vs Bangu is already scheduled to be the first game to mark the return of games in the state. Both sides have been training since the end of May and consider themselves fit and available to play on Thursday.
The next round of fixtures would then take place three days later as Vasco take on Macaé on the 21st of June.
Elsewhere, there was a slight disagreement somewhere. Vasco asked for the competition to start on the 20th while Macaé asked for the 24th. The biggest dispute came from two of the big names. Throughout the meeting, the duo of Fluminense and Botafogo were against the decision to resume the competition on Thursday and asked for a July return instead.
Both sides raised the arguments that their players had not resumed to training early enough and still needed about 15 more days to attain full fitness. Regardless of their arguments, FERJ scheduled Fluminense to play on the 22nd and Botafogo to play two days after on the 24th.
Some of the other issues discussed at the meeting include:
- Increasing the number of substitutions from three to five
- Increasing the number of amateur players allowed per team from four to twelve
- Allowing players who swapped to another Carioca side to remain eligible to play in the competition.
The competition is now set to resume with footballing activities back again in the state starting from Thursday.
