Bogota: Colombia’s top football league will resume next month after a six-month shut down because of the coronavirus, sports minister Ernesto Lucena said on Friday. The announcement came eight days after clubs were allowed to resume training in groups for the first time since mid-March. “We hope that by no later than the third week of September the national tournament will begin, of course observing the protocols that clubs and the government have agreed to,” Lucena said in the government’s daily coronavirus briefing. Lucena said all matches in the Dimayor, as the first division is known, would be played without fans until further notice. He ruled out the possibility of limiting games to specific cities to reduce travel and allay contagion risks. Colombia has more than 590,000 confirmed cases, and over 18,000 people have died from the virus in the Andean nation, according to health ministry figures.