Football will make its return in Brazil on Thursday with reigning champions and Copa Libertadores holders Flamengo taking on Bangu in the provincial Rio de Janeiro state tournament.

But the post-coronavirus restart has faced fierce opposition, including from two of Rio's biggest clubs: Botafogo and Fluminense.

In a tense virtual meeting on Tuesday night, Rubens Lopes, the president of the regional Rio football federation, compared the two rebel clubs to a bad student.

"The good student, who studies, prepares for the test and arrives to take it, but the one who doesn't study wants to delay it," said Lopes, quoted by the Globoesporte website.

Rio's iconic Maracana stadium, which hosted the 2014 World Cup final, will be the setting for the match.

It will be the first resumption of football in South America, albeit only in the Carioca Championship.

The first national league to restart will be Paraguay's on July 17.

Football on the continent has been suspended for three months due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Yet the restart comes with many countries -- including Brazil -- still experiencing their peak of infections.

But it was made possible by Rio's mayor, Marcelo Crivella relaxing lockdown rules in the city.

Crivella claims Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro -- a fierce critic of the lockdowns imposed by state governors and who has repeatedly downplayed the danger posed by the virus -- will attend Thursday's match.

But several clubs and doctors have opposed the restart, with Rio the second worst affected city in Brazil by the virus.

Almost 8,000 people have died of COVID-19 in Rio state and more than 83,000 have been infected.

The death rate from COVID-19 in Rio state -- 461 per million -- is over double the national average of 215.

No other state championships are due to restart while the government in Sao Paulo state -- whose eponymous capital city is the worst hit in Brazil by the virus -- has only authorized teams to restart training on July 1.

Brazil's national championship was due to begin in May but has been indefinitely suspended with no provisional date set for a restart.