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Coronavirus Pandemic : How is it affecting sports worldwide?

The mayor of Liverpool City Region has called for an investigation into whether a Champions League fixture should have taken place in the city in March amid concerns it could have led to a high number of local coronavirus cases.

Liverpool's match against Atletico Madrid at Anfield on 11 March was attended by 52,000 supporters, including 3,000 from the Spanish capital, where a partial lockdown was already in force.

The UK government has defended its decision to allow such events to go ahead before restrictions on mass gatherings were enforced 10 days later.

But Steve Rotheram told BBC Sport an independent inquiry was needed into a potential connection with a surge of cases in Liverpool since.

"If people have contracted coronavirus as a direct result of a sporting event that we believe shouldn't have taken place, well that is scandalous," he said.

"That's put not just those people in danger, but those frontline staff in the NHS and others in their own families that may have contracted it."

The latest figures show 246 people have died with coronavirus in Liverpool's NHS hospitals.

Meanwhile, Madrid is one of Europe's worst affected cities and Spain has the second highest number of confirmed infection cases in the world, behind the United States.

"We've seen an increase in the infection curve, and that's resulted in 1,200 people [in Liverpool] contracting Covid-19," said Rotheram.

"That needs to be investigated to find out whether some of those infections are due directly to the Atletico fans. There were coronavirus hot cities, and Madrid was one of those.

"They weren't allowed to congregate in their own country, but 3,000 of those fans came over to ours, and potentially may well have spread coronavirus.

"So it does need looking at, and it does need the government to take some responsibility for not locking down sooner."

The mayor of Madrid has already said the decision to allow the match to go ahead was "a mistake", as has Liverpool city council's director of public health Matthew Ashton.

'An interesting hypothesis'
On the day of the match at Anfield, England's deputy chief medical officer, Dr Jenny Harries, said the UK was "following the science and the evidence" in not banning sports events, as other countries had done by then.

"In general, those sorts of events and big gatherings are not seen to be something which is going to have a big effect," she said, despite the World Health Organization urging tougher action by governments that day.

A few days earlier, Prime Minister Boris Johnson had attended England v Wales in the Six Nations at Twickenham.

But while there is no confirmed link between the Liverpool match and any coronavirus cases, on 20 April the government's deputy chief scientific adviser, Angela McLean, said it warranted further investigation, describing it as an "interesting hypothesis."

"The government was saying it was a low risk at the time, but of course just a few days later they completely locked down the country; they banned sports and events and large gatherings," said Rotheram.

"And this could have happened sooner. I haven't got access to the government's scientific advisors, but they would have been asking those questions.

"That's why I think an inquiry needs to tease out just what the government was being advised to do at that time."

On Wednesday, Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden defended the timing of the UK government's ban on mass gatherings.

"Throughout all of this, we have based what we did on the scientific evidence we received both from Sage (Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies) and from the medical officers," he told MPs.

"There wasn't a case for singling out mass gatherings."

'I wish I could go back in time and not go'

'Poor decision' to stage Atletico game in March
A Liverpool fan who fears he may have unwittingly spread the disease at Anfield told the BBC the decision to stage the match was "negligent".

Having returned from a holiday a few days earlier, Ben Johnson felt slightly unwell on the day of the Atletico game and sought medical advice.

As he did not have a cough or fever, he was told to carry on as normal and attended the match.

In the days that followed he developed coronavirus symptoms. He was not tested but says he was on the verge of going to hospital, before recovering.

"It was obvious it shouldn't have gone ahead," he said.

"It just seems crazy. I wish I could go back in time and not go, and I wish there wasn't the opportunity to go. I just don't understand how it was allowed to go ahead."

Both European football's governing body Uefa and Liverpool have declined to comment.

Cheltenham 'should have been stopped'
The Liverpool v Atletico match was the last major football game to be played in England, with the season suspended two days later.

There have also been calls for an investigation into whether horse racing's Cheltenham Festival - staged in the second week of March - should have gone ahead. There are concerns it may also have led to a high number of local coronavirus cases, with 251,684 spectators in attendance across the four days.

Professor Gabriel Scally, former director of public health in the south west of England and visiting professor of public health at the University of Bristol, said there "seemed to be" a high number of Covid-19 cases in Gloucestershire.

"I think it's very tempting to link it to the Cheltenham Festival," he said. "Really, from a health point of view, [it] should have been stopped in advance."

Government data shows there have been 972 cases of the virus in Gloucestershire, and 147 people have died.

A number of high-profile attendees have reported symptoms - including West Bromwich Albion player Charlie Austin, comedian Lee Mack and Gold Cup-winning jockey Andrew Thornton.

Cheltenham organisers introduced special hygiene measures for the event, including extra hand-washing stations, and say they had followed clear guidance from the government and science experts.

Dr Sue Smith, senior racecourse medical officer for the festival, has said the hygiene standards were "of the highest level and all measures were taken in accordance with daily updates from Public Health England".

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/52399569
 
Uefa sticks with Euro 2020 in 2021

Uefa, European football's governing body, has decided to stick with the Euro 2020 branding of its flagship national competition which has been postponed until next summer.

It said: "A lot of branded material had already been produced by the time of the tournament’s postponement. A change to the name of the event would have meant the destruction and reproduction of such items."
 
The Bundesliga is ready to return on May 9 if the German government gives it the green light.
 
Barcelona want to sign Tanguy Ndombele and have offered players to Tottenham in the hope of striking a part-exchange deal.
 
FIFA to release $150 million to member associations due to COVID-19 pandemic

(Reuters) - FIFA will release operational funds for 2019 and 2020 amounting to $150 million to its member associations as the first step of a relief plan to help negate the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the global soccer body said on Friday.

Each of FIFA’s 211 member associations would receive $500,000 in the coming days as well as any remaining entitlements for 2019 and 2020, it added.

The coronavirus outbreak has brought soccer to a standstill and clubs have struggled to cope with the loss of revenue.

"The pandemic has caused unprecedented challenges for the entire football community and, as the world governing body, it is FIFA's duty to be there and support the ones that are facing acute needs," FIFA President Gianni Infantino said here

“This starts by providing immediate financial assistance to our member associations, many of which are experiencing severe financial distress.

“This is the first step of a far-reaching financial relief plan we are developing to respond to the emergency across the whole football community.”

FIFA said it would immediately release the second instalment of operational costs for 2020, originally due in July, and which under normal circumstances member associations would have only received in full upon fulfilment of specific criteria.

“This immediate financial assistance should be used to mitigate the financial impact of COVID-19 on football in member associations, namely to meet financial or operational obligations that they may have towards staff and other third parties,” FIFA said.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...ations-due-to-covid-19-pandemic-idUSKCN22623U
 
News coming in

With prime minister Mark Rutte banning professional football until September, the Dutch Football Association has ended the season.

There will be no relegation.

There will be no promotion.

Leaders Ajax will not win the title this season.
 
The Eredivisie - the top tier of football in the Netherlands - has been abandoned for the season with no title winners and no teams relegated.

The move comes after the national government banned major events until 1 September because of coronavirus.

Dutch football's governing body KNVB said "it has become impossible to play out the 2019-20 season".

Ajax led the table from AZ Alkmaar on goal difference with nine games left but will not be named champions.

Both Ajax and AZ Alkmaar will go into the Champions League qualifying stages.
 
Norwich City will "stick to their guns" on a decision to furlough non-playing staff, with the club expected to lose up to £35m because of coronavirus.

The Canaries and Newcastle are the only Premier League clubs currently using the government's job retention scheme.

Norwich say the suspension of football will cost them between £18m and £35m.

"The decision we made was in the best interests of the club and its staff," chief operating officer Ben Kensell told BBC Radio Norfolk.

"We've been very transparent that we're run in a self-financed manner. We generate a turnover of £123m - £93m of that is broadcast, and we've spent £125m this year - and that's how we run the club,

"Ultimately, if we had the available cashflow to not have to take up schemes then, like other football clubs have, we would."

Under the scheme, 200 members of Norwich's non-playing staff, including casual workers, are paid 80% of their wages by the government, with the club paying the other 20%.

Norwich, who were bottom of the Premier League with nine games remaining and in the FA Cup quarter-finals when the football season was suspended on 3 April, estimate a loss of £1.5m for each of their six remaining home fixtures, should all remaining games be played behind closed doors.

And the club expect to lose between a further £10m and £25m from potential Premier League rebates to broadcasters.

The Canaries hope to make £2.5m of savings and have agreed with HMRC to delay £18m of repayments of VAT and PAYE, while players, head coach Daniel Farke, the executive committee and directors have donated more than £200,000 towards local initiatives.

Premier League clubs Liverpool, Tottenham and Bournemouth had initially furloughed staff, but reversed their decisions following criticism.

"The difference is we're running it as a business and we're running it the best way we believe will help it for the future," said Kensell.

"It's also about our staff. What we don't want is a raft of redundancies.

"We knew we'd get criticised as a result of it; what we're not going to do is take a different view on that. We'll stick to our guns and we believe we are doing it for the right reasons.

"We've got the best owners in football - that's a fact. We haven't got the richest owners but we like to think we're doing things the right way."
 
This year's postponed London Marathon could be staged with elite athletes only, race director Hugh Brasher has said.

Brasher said that was one of 10 options which were "changing all the time" and could also see a further delay.

The event was due to take place on Sunday 26 April but has been moved to 4 October because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Nearly 43,000 runners took part in 2019, with £66.4m ($81m) raised for charity.
 
Chelsea say first-team players will not be taking wage cuts following discussions amid the coronavirus crisis but have been asked to support charities instead.
 
The government plans to set up the first of a series of regular meetings involving senior medical directors of the major sports this week in a bid to return to action as soon as possible.

The move was described by a source close to the plans as a "quickening of the pace" and intended to help sport resume "within weeks", if progress was made.

The Chief Medical Officer's staff would also be involved in the weekly meetings, and the Prime Minister has been briefed on the plan.

The specifics of each sport would be examined by health experts to see what protocols would be needed to get each up and running as soon as possible, meaning some would return sooner than others.

Testing, social distancing, hygiene standards and strict limits on the numbers of people allowed in venues would all be debated.

It comes just days after Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden told MPs that he had been having "productive talks" with governing bodies from across British sport on restarting following the coronavirus shutdown.

However, a return to action still depends on the government's five tests being met, especially an increase in testing, and meeting social distancing guidelines.

Sport at all levels is on hold because of the coronavirus pandemic which has claimed the lives of more than 19,000 people in the UK.

The Premier League, Women's Super League and English football leagues have suspended the 2019-20 season indefinitely, while the lower-league season in Scotland has ended.

Cricket in England and Wales remains suspended until 1 July.

The first nine races of the Formula 1 season have been called off with the British Grand Prix scheduled to take place in July.

The London Marathon, which had been set to take place this weekend, has been rescheduled for October.

Rugby union's Premiership clubs are working towards a best-case scenario of returning to action on the weekend of 3-5 July.

Golf's Open Championship, which had been set to take place in Kent in July, has been cancelled with the three other men's majors rescheduled.

The meetings are viewed as preparatory, and intended to avoid a further delay to seasons being resumed once approval is granted, rather than a sign that it was imminent. Indeed, there is an acceptance that the plans being put in place may not end up being implemented for months if progress elsewhere is not made.

Government officials have accepted that at this stage, sport would only be able to take place behind closed doors.

But there is a recognition that it may provide many people with a much-needed boost to morale after months of lockdown.

Officials are known to be nervous however about the prospect of fans congregating in large numbers outside stadia to celebrate if titles for instance are confirmed.

Dowden said this week that the Premier League was considering making some behind-closed-doors fixtures available free-to-air when the season restarts.

But officials are said to be mindful of commercial contracts with broadcasters Sky and BT, and recognise the importance of the revenue they generate to the sport more widely.

The Premier League holds its next meeting on Friday.

'Suitable testing' needed before return, says EFL

The English Football League has said it "welcomes the current steps being taken" by the government and that a return to playing could only come about "through a continued collaborative approach".

The EFL has previously said it hopes to complete the season in 56 days but that it was assumed matches would be played behind closed doors.

In a statement issued on Saturday, the organisation - which oversees the Championship, League One and League Two - added that "suitable testing arrangements" must be in place before football in England can resume.

"The position of the EFL remains unchanged in that the priority is to resume the 2019-20 season as soon as it is possible with matches only returning at an appropriate point and based on guidance from the relevant authorities," said the statement.

https://www.bbc.com/sport/52423767
 
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Premier League football could return within weeks - with plans for matches to be played behind closed doors
 
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font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:550; line-height:18px;"> View this post on Instagram</div></div><div style="padding: 12.5% 0;"></div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;"><div> <div style="background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);"></div> <div style="background-color: #F4F4F4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;"></div> <div style="background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);"></div></div><div style="margin-left: 8px;"> <div style=" background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;"></div> <div style=" width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg)"></div></div><div style="margin-left: auto;"> <div style=" width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);"></div> <div style=" background-color: #F4F4F4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);"></div> <div style=" width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);"></div></div></div></a> <p style=" margin:8px 0 0 0; padding:0 4px;"> <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B_amctUj47c/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" style=" color:#000; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px; text-decoration:none; word-wrap:break-word;" target="_blank">Packing boxes then driving to elderly peoples home to give food boxes. I’m fasting today, I can imagine what they going through. Take a minute out and think about those who are hungry and need our help. [MENTION=858]Amir[/MENTION]khanfoundation [MENTION=858]Amir[/MENTION]kingkhan</a></p> <p style=" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px; margin-bottom:0; margin-top:8px; overflow:hidden; padding:8px 0 7px; text-align:center; text-overflow:ellipsis; white-space:nowrap;">A post shared by <a href="https://www.instagram.com/amirkingkhan/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" style=" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px;" target="_blank"> Amir Khan</a> [MENTION=858]Amir[/MENTION]kingkhan) on <time style=" font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px;" datetime="2020-04-25T19:30:18+00:00">Apr 25, 2020 at 12:30pm PDT</time></p></div></blockquote> <script async src="//www.instagram.com/embed.js"></script>
 
The Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 seasons will not resume after France banned all sporting events, including behind closed doors, until September.

Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said the 2019-20 sporting season is over as he announced plans to ease France's coronavirus lockdown on 11 May.

French football's governing body had hoped to resume the season on 17 June and finish the campaign on 25 July.

Football was suspended indefinitely in France on 13 March.

It is not yet known whether Ligue de Football Professional (LFP) will choose to abandon the season with no promotion or relegation and no champions or base the outcome of the campaign on current standings.

Defending champions Paris St-Germain are 12 points clear of Marseille at the top of Ligue 1, with 10 rounds of matches and one outstanding fixture left to play.

Toulouse are bottom of the table, 17 points from safety, and 10 points behind Amiens. Nimes are 18th and in the relegation play-off spot, three points behind St Etienne in 17th.

The top five sides in Ligue 2 are separated by just four points, with Lorient and Lens currently occupying the automatic promotion spots.

The LFP had previously met on 10 April and voted to resume the Ligue 1 season.

However, Philippe said: "The 2019-20 season of professional sports, including football, will not be able to resume.

"It will be possible, on sunny days, to practice an individual sporting activity outdoors, obviously respecting the rules of social distancing.

"It will not be possible, neither to practice sport in covered places, nor team or contact sports."

European leagues have until 25 May to tell European football's governing body Uefa whether they want to complete or cancel their seasons.

The Dutch top flight was abandoned on Friday with no promotion or relegation and no champions, while on Monday Belgian clubs postponed a vote on confirming the cancellation of their top flight until next week.

The head of the Dutch FA told BBC Sport he thinks it is "very doubtful" the Premier League will be able to complete the 2019-20 campaign.

Uefa has said it will use on-field performance to determine which clubs make up next season's European club competitions.

If league seasons cannot be finished, it said national associations would need to select clubs to qualify for Europe.

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/52460468
 
Coronavirus and football: Fifa medical chair does not want restart this season

Fifa's chief doctor has warned against restarting the interrupted 2019-20 campaign and suggested governing bodies prepare for action next season instead.

Michel d'Hooghe said "as a doctor" he would be "sceptical" about continuing leagues amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The chair of Fifa's medical committee told BBC Sport: "My proposal is if it is possible, avoid playing competitive football in the coming weeks.

"Try to be prepared for the start of good competition next season."

European leagues have until 25 May to tell European governing body Uefa whether they want to complete or cancel their seasons.

"There is a risk and it is not a risk that has small consequences," continued D'Hooghe.

"It can have consequences of life and death and that is why I am so careful and I ask everyone to be very careful before deciding to play again.

"I speak as a medical doctor, I don't have to speak as an organiser of matches, but for the moment from my medical standpoint I would be very sceptical."

Belgian D'Hooghe added it would be extremely difficult to continue social distancing if football matches were to resume and believes some "hygienic rules" would have to be put in place if seasons were to continue.

"How will you avoid direct contact?" he said. "That is my question.

"For the moment the criteria means it is absolutely difficult to say that we can play competitive football and believe me I regret it profoundly because I am a football man.

"I am a little bit afraid that to have a complete solution we will have to wait until we have a vaccination programme, but I think the time has come now to think of some hygienic rules.

"For instance to avoid spitting - why do we have to see that in football and not in other sports? This is one of the things we have to consider because this is a real danger in the future."

On Tuesday it was announced that the French Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 seasons will not resume.

It is not yet known whether the Ligue de Football Professional (LFP) will choose to abandon the season with no promotion or relegation and no champions, or base the outcome of the campaign on current standings.

The Dutch top flight was abandoned on Friday with no promotion or relegation and no champions, while on Monday Belgian clubs postponed a vote on confirming the cancellation of their top flight until next week.

Plans to resume the Premier League season will step up this week in what has been labelled "Project Restart".

Arsenal, Brighton and West Ham opened their training grounds to players for individual work on Monday.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/52462233
 
BREAKING: Professional sportspeople in Spain have been given the go-ahead to return to training from May 4 as part of the country's plan to get out of lockdown.
 
Sports should return from the "bottom-up not the top-down" when the coronavirus lockdown lifts, according to a public health adviser to the World Health Organization.

Dr Brian McCloskey, former public health director for London 2012, said community sport could be the first type of sport to return.

That comes after:

The chief doctor at football's world governing body Fifa warned against restarting the interrupted 2019-20 campaign

France's top two football divisions were ended when Prime Minister Edouard Philippe banned all sporting events until September

Tokyo 2020 President Yoshiro Mori said the Games would be "scrapped" if they could not go ahead in their new dates starting in July 2021
 
German, Dutch and Finnish MotoGP races cancelled

MotoGP's German, Dutch and Finnish rounds in June and July have all been cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the sport's governing body and promoter announced.The German Grand Prix had been scheduled for June 21, followed by the Dutch TT at Assen on June 28 with Finland's new Kymi Ring making its debut on July 12.MotoGP's season has yet to start, with the first 11 races affected by the virus, and organisers have yet to publish a fully revised calendar.
 
Paulo Dybala, who tested positive for COVID-19 for the first time on March 21, is yet to receive a negative swab and therefore cannot be considered cured of the virus.
 
Coronavirus could impact on the international football calendar for "two or three years", says a member of Uefa's executive committee.

Lars-Christer Olsson, president of European Leagues, said that it would be a case of "wait and see" to assess the disruption of the pandemic, including on the 2022 Qatar World Cup.

Uefa hopes to complete the Champions League and Europa League in August.

A decision is set to be made at the end of May around whether this is feasible.

There are also plans to fit three - rather than two - fixtures into international windows this autumn to play Euro 2020 qualifiers and Nations League fixtures.

Olsson said that he would "rather see a scenario where the current season is not finished than not kicking off the new season".

Following the widespread suspension of football and the postponement of Euro 2020 and Euro 2021, he was asked on a Soccerex webinar how long he thought that the international calendar could be affected.

"Probably two or three years I think," he said.

Earlier, he had told BBC Radio 5 Live Breakfast that there was "no consensus" between countries regarding finishing the domestic season, as each country faces different situations regarding the virus and government decisions.

France's top two divisions, Ligue 1 and Ligue 2, will not resume this season after France banned all sporting events, including those behind closed doors, until September.

The Dutch top flight was abandoned last week with no promotion or relegation and no champions.

Asked how Uefa would claim to have a satisfactory conclusion to their competitions if competing clubs, such as PSG and Ajax, have not played football for many months, he said: "It's difficult to say but in any case, it's a extraordinary situation we are in and there have to be extraordinary solutions."

Speaking on the webinar, he said: "For the time being we are planning, trying to squeeze in the rest of the season 2019-20 in the month of August.

"If that would be possible, then I think it would be fine because that would also mean that we can safeguard the integrity of the final phase of the current season of international football.

"But of course we have to take decisions about that at the end of May at least because otherwise it will probably not be possible to squeeze it in and also to qualify the clubs for the new season."

With the World Cup less than three years away, Olsson was asked if that could be affected.

"If the virus is developing in an even more serious way as it has been for the time being there will definitely be a problem with the international calendar," he said.

"When some of the competitions are moved from one year to another. And then the Qatar World Cup is coming in the middle of the European system and you have to squeeze in domestic and international competitions. But I think we have to wait and see how that is going to affect the business."

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/52480495
 
Premier League restart: Liverpool mayor fears 'farcical' situation

Liverpool mayor Joe Anderson has said resuming the Premier League is a "non-starter", and he fears a "farcical" situation with fans congregating outside Anfield - even if Liverpool clinch the title at a neutral venue.

The Premier League has told its clubs only "approved venues" will be used, raising the possibility of matches being played at neutral grounds.

Liverpool, chasing their first title for 30 years, lead the table by 25 points with nine games remaining, while the league hopes to restart on 8 June.

The league's "Project Restart" envisages the season resuming behind closed doors because of social distancing measures in place to battle the coronavirus pandemic.

The national lead for football policing said on Wednesday that playing all remaining Premier League and EFL fixtures at their original venues would "present challenges" to the emergency services.

Deputy chief constable Mark Roberts said "options" need to be looked at.

Anderson, Liverpool's first directly elected mayor, told BBC Sport: "Even if it was behind closed doors, there'd be many thousands of people who would turn up outside Anfield.

"There's not many people who would respect what we were saying and stay away from the ground, a lot of people would come to celebrate so I think it's a non-starter."

Asked about whether playing at a neutral venue would help, he said: "Even then, I guess that a lot of people would turn up outside Anfield to celebrate and I understand the police's concerns around that, so there's a real difficulty here for us.

"I think it would be really difficult for the police to keep people apart and maintain social distancing if they were going to celebrate outside Anfield, it would be farcical.

"It's difficult for us to try to stop people gathering in parks when the weather has been good, especially young people. And I fear people would just ignore it.

"The police are right to be concerned about that as we are here in the city, and pubic health officials are also concerned about that, so we'd ask the Premier League and government to take into account all of these concerns that we have."

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/52484530
 
BOLTON’S Amir Khan is known for his prowess in the boxing ring.

But the former world champion has been taking on another challenge in supporting frontline workers in the fight to tackle coronavirus.

Amir has been delivering drinks and sanitisers to firefighters, Bolton Royal Hospital and care homes in the town.

They are the latest efforts of his organisation, the Amir Khan Foundation, which is working to make a difference during the pandemic crisis.

The 33-year-old shared videos on social media of him arriving at a fire station where he dropped off goods.

His appearance was warmly greeted by crew members, who chatted to him.

The boxer carries drinks into the Royal Bolton Hospital

In another post Amir shared a video of himself dropping off hand sanitisers and drinks at Meadowbank House Care Home in Great Lever.

He was greeted by staff who posed with him for pictures.

https://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/new...supplies-frontline-workers-fight-coronavirus/
 
UK Government approves £16m in loans to 'protect sport'

Rugby league in England will receive £16m in government loans to help it recover from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

Rugby Football League (RFL) chief executive Ralph Rimmer asked for assistance after the suspension of the game on 16 March.

Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden said the government had intervened "to protect an entire sport".

England is set to host the World Cup in 2021.

Eighteen English venues, predominantly in the north, are scheduled to stage games during the tournament, which runs from 23 October and 27 November, with the men's and women's finals scheduled for Old Trafford.

The sport is seen as a special case because of its social value in mainly northern communities and the risk of it being wiped out.

"Rugby league is not a wealthy sport. But it is rich in the things that matter most - outstanding sporting and life chances in often disadvantaged communities," said Rimmer.

"This support enables the sport to survive, to reshape, to be ready to restart in this our 125th year and to look to a home World Cup."

Read more: https://www.bbc.com/sport/rugby-league/52493621
 
An estimated 40,000 coronavirus tests will be needed for players and staff to finish the Premier League football season, clubs have been told.

Club bosses were given an update on the plan named "Project Restart" in a Premier League shareholders’ meeting this afternoon.

Up to 10 stadiums would be used to finish the season - instead of all 20 teams having home and away games as usual. That is to reduce the chances of fans congregating at grounds.

There was no discussion about ending the season prematurely as has happened in France, Belgium and the Netherlands.

Clubs will meet again next week after the Government's review of the lockdown restrictions.
 
Nascar racing will be the first US sport to resume after a break in competition, when it kicks off a seven-race series on 17 May in South Carolina, the league announced on Thursday.

The races will be held with no fans in attendance.All racers and their crews will be required to wear masks and undergo temperature screenings.

It remains unclear when or how other US sports will resume.

The NBA has yet to announce whether it will restart basketball games this season, while Major League Baseball officials are reportedly optimistic the season may open in July.
 
Three members of German football club FC Cologne have tested positive for Covid-19, the club has confirmed.

The Bundesliga side said the entire team, as well as coaching and backroom staff, were tested on Thursday.

The three individuals who tested positive were not displaying any symptoms, the club said, but would spend 14 days in quarantine at home. Group training at the club would continue, it added.

The club did not identify those who had contracted Covid-19.
 
Sassuolo are set to become the first Serie A side to re-start training following the coronavirus shutdown.

The club, based in northern Italy, said its players could use the club’s facilities on an optional basis. They will train individually.

Professional teams will be allowed to train together from 18 May although they will still have to respect social distancing guidelines.

Italian football’s top flight has been suspended since 9 March and the league and the country’s federation (FIGC) both want to complete the season, although the government says it has not yet decided whether it will give permission.

Italy has suffered the heaviest death toll in Europe from coronavirus, at nearly 29,000.
 
FIFA vice-president ponders calendar year season in Europe

ROME (Reuters) - FIFA vice-president Victor Montagliani has said that moving the European soccer season to the calendar year is a “possibility to be discussed” in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic which has brought football to a standstill around the world.

In an interview with Italy’s Radio Sportiva, Montagliani, who is seen as a close ally of FIFA president Gianni Infantino, said the move would fit in with the 2022 World Cup being played in Qatar in November and December.

The head of world soccer’s governing body himself has said that football will be totally different when it restarts and that the current stoppage could be a good chance to overhaul the overloaded calendar which is due to run until 2024.

“We have the opportunity because the World Cup in Qatar in 2022 will be played in November/December and that could be the idea,” said Montagliani, who is president of the CONCACAF confederation.

“Here in the Americas, the season is already played according to the calendar year, perhaps it is a solution that could also be used in Europe and Africa, it is a possibility to be discussed at national and continental level,” he said.

“It is not an idea to be discarded, it can be a solution in view of the next two years and this winter World Cup”.

A number of European leagues, including Italy, Germany and England, still hope to finish their seasons but doing so could force the start of the 2020-21 campaign to be pushed back. UEFA also wants to finish the Champions League and Europa League.

“We had already started thinking about how to set a new calendar from 2024, now with this crisis we need immediate answers,” added Montagliani.

The idea of a calendar-year season has been put forward before including by Karl-Heinz Rummenigge when he was chairman of the European Club Association (ECA).

“Everywhere, be it Germany, France or England, summer is the best period of the year. And that is the season we don’t play,” he told France Football magazine in a 2013 interview.

“In deepest winter, when it is very cold and snowing, we play nearly all the time in conditions that are disagreeable for both players and spectators. It is not logical.”
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...-calendar-year-season-in-europe-idUSKBN22E0J0
 
Time is running out for European leagues to decide whether to resume their respective competitions, and that includes the Bundesliga.

The German league has been given a boost by Horst Seehofer, the country's interior minister, who told Bild am Sonntag that a plan put forward for Bundesliga matches to be played behind closed doors was plausible.

However, he said if there was a coronavirus case at a club then that club, and maybe the team they played against, would have to be quarantined for two weeks.

The interview with Seehofer was carried out before news was released of three members of FC Cologne testing positive.

The Bundesliga wants to restart in mid-May, and a government meeting on Wednesday should provide further clarity.

Uefa, European football's governing body, has given leagues a 25 May deadline to declare their intent.
 
FINA postpones 2021 Fukuoka world championships

The 2021 aquatics world championships in Fukuoka, Japan, will now be held from May 13-29, 2022, swimming's governing body FINA said in a statement.

The decision follows the postponement of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics to 2021 due to the pandemic.

"After liaising with the relevant stakeholders and receiving feedback from them, we have no doubt that the decision taken will provide the best possible conditions for all participants at the championships," said FINA president Julio Maglione.

"At a time of unprecedented uncertainty, FINA hopes the announcement of these dates will allow for some clarity in planning for all concerned."
 
England's Football Association chairman Greg Clarke has said it is hard to see fans returning to matches "any time soon".

If the Premier League and EFL were to resume this season matches would take place behind closed doors, while clubs are also preparing for the possibility of playing the 2020-21 campaign without fans.

"The reality is that we just don't know how things are going to pan out," Clarke wrote in a letter to the FA governing council.

"With social distancing in place for some time to come, we do face substantial changes to the whole football ecosystem. For example it's hard to foresee crowds of fans - who are the lifeblood of the game - returning to matches any time soon."

Clarke's letter also spelled out the financial crisis facing the governing body and warned a budget cut of £75m will be "sensible" this year, with a worst-case scenario projecting a £300m loss over four years.
 
La Liga clubs are returning to training this week and organisers are aiming for a June restart to the season.
 
Players in the top two flights of football in Spain will return to training this week with the hope of the leagues restarting in June.

They will initially train alone but a "staggered return to training" will be implemented with players training together at a later date.

Football in Spain was suspended indefinitely in March because of the coronavirus pandemic.

In the UK, the Premier League hopes to resume on 8 June but there is disagreement between the clubs on how to move forward.

In Germany, clubs have been training in groups before a planned return to training as teams. The German league could restart on 16 or 23 May.

It has already been announced that the top leagues in France and the Netherlands will not resume.
 
A number of Premier League club doctors have raised a range of concerns with league bosses over plans to resume the season, BBC Sport has learned.

One issue that the senior medics have sought assurances over includes their own liability and insurance cover if players contract the virus.

The Premier League has also been asked to provide some clarity over medical protocols, testing and player welfare.

The Premier League is hopeful of a potential 8 June resumption.

The 20 club doctors have been holding their own discussions about Project Restart - the label given to plans to resume action - with a view to feeding their thoughts into the Premier League's leadership.

A Premier League source told the BBC that they viewed the move by the medics as a natural part of the process with clubs, and a means of reaching "the best possible set of protocols".

They also confirmed that the league was in talks with insurance companies over the issue of club and doctor liability, and that this would be brought up with government representatives this week.

The Premier League is represented on a cross-sport working group of medical experts and public health officials which will meet for the second time in a week on Wednesday.

The panel is devising the health and hygiene measures that players, managers and club staff will be asked to agree to before full training and then competition can resume, but only if the government deems it safe to do so.

The government is set to review its lockdown measures later this week, with the Premier League meeting to vote on the plans next Monday. A number of players and sports medics have already voiced their concerns about whether it is safe to return to action.

Eamonn Salmon, the chief executive of the Football Medicine and Performance Association (FMPA), has told BBC Sport that opinion among doctors and physios at English football clubs regarding resumption plans was varied.

Speaking last week, he said: "I guess the views of our members will be a kind of snapshot of society really.

"There are those who think it can be done, there are those that are doubtful and there are those that probably suggest it is an impossible task.

"We have to wait, this is a waiting game all the time, it is such a changing landscape and fluctuating on a day to day basis.

"This is just the start in some respects, whatever proposals are put there it is then open to debate and for comment and opinion to feed into that."

If training is resumed before social distancing rules are relaxed, BBC Sport understands players will be tested for coronavirus twice a week and would be screened for symptoms every day.

All tests would be carried out by health professionals at a drive-through NHS testing facility that each club would have access to. Training grounds will be optimised for social distancing and high hygiene levels.

In addition:

Players must arrive at training grounds in kit and wear masks at all times.
They must not shower or eat on the premises. If clubs want to provide players with food, it must be delivered as a takeaway to players' cars.
Only essential medical treatment would be allowed, with all medical staff in full PPE.
All meetings and reviews must take place virtually and off-site.
In Germany, where the Bundesliga is set to become the first major football league in Europe to return to competition, 10 positive results have been returned from 1,724 coronavirus tests from clubs in the top two divisions.

Cubs have been training in groups and the tests are being taken before a planned return to training as teams.

Measures including "the isolation of the affected person" have been taken, said the DFL.

Top-flight side Cologne have had no further Covid-19 infections after three people tested positive last week.

Bundesliga officials suggested resuming on 9 May but the government delayed the decision and a restart may now be on 16 or 23 May.

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/52536329
 
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says the country will not have open borders with the rest of the world for "a long time to come".

Ms Ardern was speaking after attending part of Australia's cabinet meeting via video link.

The meeting discussed a possible "trans-Tasman bubble", where people could go between Australia and New Zealand freely, and without quarantine.

But she said visitors from further afield were not possible any time soon.

Both Australia and New Zealand have closed their borders to almost all foreigners as part of their Covid-19 response.
 
Former Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt says England's Premier League football should return if an “ingenious way” can be found to make it safe.

Representatives from Football, Cricket and Rugby are meeting the government today to discuss strategies to restart sport.

A June resumption has been mooted by the Premier League, which was suspended on 13 March.

“It can and it should (restart),” Hunt told the BBC.

“It’s a question of whether we can find an ingenious way of doing it behind closed doors that does not risk the safety of the players or the public.”

While current health secretary Matt Hancock says he is “open” to the idea, PFA chief executive Gordon Taylor said players were “not stupid” and will “put safety first” when presented with proposals next week.

Taylor added that halves of less than 45 minutes are among measures being considered to restart football.
 
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The Tour de France will start on 29 August, with the Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a Espana overlapping during October, the UCI has announced.

Cycling's three Grand Tour races are part of a packed schedule across just over three months from 1 August.

The Tour de France - pushed back from June - had been cast into doubt when the French government said it was "not sure" the country would be ready.

France last week extended a ban on mass gatherings until September.

That was because of the coronavirus pandemic, and French sports minister Roxana Maracineanu cast questions over the Tour de France's viability for 2020 when she said on Tuesday: "We do not know what the epidemic will be like after lockdown."

The Tour had been scheduled to run from 27 June to 19 July originally; that start date was pushed back last week by the UCI, world cycling's governing body.

It will stick with that adjusted schedule, starting on 29 August and ending on 20 September.

La Course by le Tour de France, the women's race, was initially scheduled to take place over one day on 19 July on the Champs Elysees in Paris. It will now take place on the opening day of the men's Tour.

The Giro d'Italia will run from 3-25 October, and the Vuelta from 20 October to 8 November, seeing two of the biggest races of the season run concurrently.

The cycling calendar has been affected significantly by the pandemic.

The men's season is set to begin with the Strade Bianche one-day classic in Italy on 1 August and end on 8 November with the Vuelta, which has been reduced by three days.

Other major races include the 'monument' classics Milan-San Remo on 8 August, Liege-Bastogne-Liege on 4 October, Tour of Flanders on 18 October, Paris-Roubaix on 25 October and Il Lombardia on 31 October.

The Road World Championships, which will be held in Switzerland, remain in their 20-27 September slot.

The women's calendar runs from 1 August with the Strade Bianche, and ends with the two-day Madrid Challenge by La Vuelta on 8 November.

The eight-day Giro d'Italia Internazionale Femminile is set for 11-19 September. And the first women's Paris-Roubaix will take place in October.

"Paris-Roubaix is an iconic race, one of the races that attracts most fans in cycling and if we can attract those same fans to women's cycling, I think it's a really positive thing," said Britain's Lizzie Deignan, who won the world title in 2015.

Many large-scale sporting events scheduled to take place this summer have either been called off, such as Wimbledon, or pushed back by a year, such as football's European Championship and the summer Olympics.

UCI president David Lappartient said: "We have drawn up a solid, attractive and varied new calendar that is as realistic and coherent as possible.

"The recommencement of our activities will remain dependent on the evolution of the world health situation," he added.

https://www.bbc.com/sport/cycling/52538290
 
South Korea's baseball league started on Tuesday in front of no fans.

It is one of the world's biggest sport leagues to return during the coronavirus pandemic. The country's football league kicks off on Friday.

Players and coaches were checked for fever on their way into the grounds. Umpires and some coaches wore masks and players could not high five team-mates without gloves.

Cheerleaders were still active - although to empty stands. Some pictures of fans were placed in seats.

The league will be suspended for three weeks if any player catches coronavirus.

0511586d-085c-499d-8b62-c58b1a6c40c5.jpg
 
Taiwan eases restrictions for baseball games

Taiwan eased coronavirus restrictions on outdoor activities, including baseball games and mountain climbing, as the epidemic slows down in the island nation.

"We've agreed to allow up to 1,000 fans to attend a baseball game, starting Friday, "Health and Welfare Minister Chen Shih-chung told a news conference.

The country is also lifting restrictions on mass gatherings, involving art and cultural activities and for restaurants.
 
The Portuguese attacker returned to Turin on Monday after spending almost two months in his homeland Cristiano Ronaldo will be placed in quarantine for two weeks after the Juventus star returned to Turin.

The Portuguese attacker spent almost two months in his native Madeira as the coronavirus pandemic struck Italy, forcing the country into lockdown.

Ronaldo was expected back on May 18, when clubs were initially scheduled to return to training.

The Italian government moved that date forward to May 4 after many regions gave permission for training centres to open again, prompting Juventus to recall the foreign players who had left the country as the Covid-19 situation grew worse.

The players coming back will have to undergo two weeks of quarantine upon their arrival in Italy before they can begin training again.

While Ronaldo, 35, and his family were on the way back to Turin, many of his team-mates were being tested for coronavirus at the Juventus Training Centre.

Aaron Ramsey, Federico Bernardeschi, Juan Cuadrado, Carlo Pinsoglio and Merih Demiral, who is recovering from injury, were all examined.

As of Tuesday, training will resume but players will have to work on their own to abide by social distancing rules.

Although all 20 Serie A clubs voted to get the season underway again whenever it is safe to return and are now easing their way back to training, it remains unknown when football will be played again.

Despite the government's decision to lift restrictions on athletes of team sports returning to training, the nation's Sports Minister, Vincenzo Spadafora, said there is "no way" football can return soon.

Although there have been fears that the government could ban some sports for several months, Italian Football Federation (FIGC) president Gabriele Gravina has warned that such a move "would be the death of Italian football", while Lazio sporting director Igli Tare said clubs are willing to wait several months before resuming the season.

"I heard that the order could come from the Minister of Sport this week," he said. "But that would not be within his remit. FIFA, UEFA and FIGC have explained that the leagues must be finished within the calendar year.

"If we don't start the league again in June, we will do it when it's possible."

https://www.goal.com/en/news/ronald...urning-to-juventus/13b1syf015wqk1skewzd09h31x
 
New Zealand 'could resume professional sport next week'

Grant Robertson, New Zealand's sports minister says professional sport could resume as early as next week when authorities decide whether to ease coronavirus restrictions further.

"Moving to Alert Level 2 continues to expand the opportunities for sport and recreation and reintroduces the opportunity for competitive sport - both at a local and professional level," Robertson says. "Obviously, the paramount concern is that a return to competitive sport is done safely."

New Zealand Rugby says it is "thrilled" and has plans for 10 rounds of domestic games for the country's five Super Rugby teams, who have been idle since the season was suspended in March.
 
No fans in Dutch stadiums until vaccine developed: Health minister

Sporting events in the Netherlands will have to take place without fans in attendance until there is a vaccine for the novel coronavirus, Health Minister Hugo de Jonge has said said.

Prime Minister Mark Rutte said on Wednesday organised sport could resume from September 1, but de Jonge said mass gatherings would not be allowed until a vaccine had been developed.

"We cannot yet mention a date for the last step, the mass gatherings. That is actually only possible if there is a vaccine and no one knows how long it will take," de Jonge wrote in a letter to the Dutch parliament. "We hope of course soon, but a year or more is very real."
 
Three Fiorentina players and three members of the club's support staff have tested positive for coronavirus
 
English football chiefs will hold further talks with the UK government and public health officials next week, the culture secretary has confirmed.

Premier League, English Football League and FA officials will join a third round of talks next Thursday, Oliver Dowden told the BBC.

He said the government was also looking at other sports which "could potentially take place behind closed doors".

"If we can get a plan that works, then I would like us to be able to go ahead with it because I think it will be good for the nation, it would be good for football as a whole," he said.

He stressed that "public safety must come first".

It comes after Germany announced its top two leagues, Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2, will return behind closed doors from 16 May.
 
Players and staff who tested positive at the two Serie A clubs sent home in compliance with Italian government protocols.
 
The National Football League (NFL) has announced its 2020 season game lineup, despite questions about whether the pandemic will interfere with the autumn schedule.

The first game of the year will be held on 10 September in Kansas City.

The schedule is going ahead as normal, but the league says it has contingency plans to move back the finals - and even the championship Super Bowl game - in case of any delay due to the ongoing pandemic.

Meanwhile National Basketball Association (NBA) training facilities began to reopen on Friday.

Extra social distancing measures have been put in place for basketball players as they train, according to the league.
 
As debates rage in other countries about the return of professional football, games will be played on the Faroe Islands today for the first time since balls stopped being kicked amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

The north Atlantic archipelago, located 370 miles north of Scotland with a population of just 50,000, will provide some much-needed respite to football fans when games restart in the country’s 10-team top flight.

Normally, matches in the country’s league are watched by fewer than 1,000 fans in the terraces but now, given the lack of football elsewhere, TV audiences will be tuning in from Norway and Denmark for the first game, which is being held behind closed doors.

Mikkjal Thomassen, manager of KL KLasksvik, the top league’s reigning champions, told BBC Breakfast: “It’s just strange times, we are excited of course, very excited to be back.”

He added: “We are privileged to be in the spotlight for a moment, we will enjoy it and give it our best.”

Thomassen explained he was thankful no one had died on the Faroe Islands after contracting Covid-19. “Last night, officially, we came down to zero incidents in the Foroes. There’s been a really loyal and active fight against corona and people have respected and so it went very well. There’s been no deaths, as you know.”

Any staff or players with symptoms have been tested but all have returned negative results, Thomassen added. “There has been a massive testing in the Faroes, more than 10% of the population has been tested,” he said.

It comes after South Korea’s K league re-started yesterday and Germany’s Bundesliga has been given the green light to resume on May 16. The Belarusian Premier League prompted controversy by carrying on with matches despite the outbreak.
 
Dynamo Dresden, who play in the second tier of German football, have placed their entire squad and coaching staff in isolation after two players tested positive for coronavirus.

The development comes a week before the restart of the Bundesliga season and scuppers their plans to face Hannover 96 next weekend.

"The fact is that we cannot train or participate in games in the next 14 days," sporting director Ralf Minge was quoted by AFP as saying.

German football has been suspended since March and is only being allowed to return with strict rules in place.
 
A third Brighton player has tested positive for coronavirus, chief executive Paul Barber has confirmed.
 
KARACHI: Most of the National Sports Federations often criticise government and attribute falling standard of country’s sports graph to the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) apathy for not releasing their annual grants and rewards to international medal-winning athletes.

Contrary to their chorus every now and then, it is on record that the PSB released an enormous amount of Rs1.06 billion to the National Sports Federations during the last five-years (2014-2015 to 2018-2019) under annual grants/special grants/grants released as per directives of president or prime minister.

Recently the Minister for International Provincial Coordination (IPC) Dr Fehmida Mirza doled out cheques to medal-winning athletes of the South Asian Games held at Kathmandu last year. Ironically, the role of coaches has always been downplayed. The government should also honour coaches of medal-winning athletes.

As part of its duty, the PSB had also organised national training camps for 20 disciplines in Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi in 2018-2019 in order to prepare the athletes for the South Asian extravaganza.


Athletes suffer due to closure of departments

It is a fact that despite spending millions of rupees on athletes, Pakistan, once a force to be reckoned with in the regional spectacle, overall finished fourth with 32-41-59 medals ahead of Bangladesh, Maldives and Bhutan. Neighbouring India returned with a mammoth 173 gold medals to retain the top slot. Even hosts Nepal and Sri Lanka ended way ahead of Pakistan.

It is also on record that the government has always rewarded its athletes for their heroics in global competitions in cash and kind since gaining independence. Be it Tamgha-e-Imtiaz or Pride of Performance, residential plots or agriculture lands, departmental promotions or the cash prizes.

The Imran Khan government has, however, come down hard by putting an embargo on releasing the funds to Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) on reports of alleged corrupt practices and deteriorating standard of national game. Though the PHF got Rs420.4m, the highest grant released to any federation, the nation is paying the price of greenshirts’ failure to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics. Earlier too, Pakistan hockey team missed the bus for the 2016 Rio Olympics.

After assuming power, Imran had immediately removed the then PCB chief Najam Sethi, but it appears that he has compromised on PHF president retired Brig Khalid Sajjad Khokhar who managed to extend his term last year.

It is an irony that none of the federations have devised marketing strategy to keep the ball rolling in the absence of government grant-in-aid that is allegedly misused. Instead of looking to the government for funds, the federations should chip in private sponsors to run their shows.

Though the Pakistan Billiards and Snooker Federation (PBSF) received Rs30.5m from the PSB during (2014-2015 to 2018-2019) it has done away with the practice of holding camps for cueists prior to their departure abroad. For quite some time now the PBSF has also curtailed the annual men’s ranking events from four to three. There are many grey areas but instead of overcoming them, the officials are raising their profiles at the cost of cueists’ feats.

Sources say incumbent world snooker champion Mohammad Asif, perhaps, damaged his case when he lost his patience and said that ‘he’d not play for country in future if not rewarded for his second world title’. The clip went viral on social media. It is on record that he was honoured by the government in cash and kind on his first world title besides others.

It would be wise that the government should devise award criteria for cueists as they don’t fall in the existing category of Olympics, Asian, Commonwealth and SA Games.

True, the closure of sports departments of financial institutions and other sectors has saddened the sports fraternity. No sportsperson could have expected such a harsh decision from Test-cricketer turned Prime Minister Imran Khan that he would bury the sports. The abrupt and unfortunate order has left thousands of promising players and would-be future stars jobless.

China is a role model for Pakistan and we should learn from its rise to the top of ladder at 2008 Beijing Olympics surpassing the US before home crowd. It didn’t happen in a short span of time but it was a struggle of 16 years and a step-by-step rise at the top.

China finished overall fourth on the final medal count at the 1996 Atlanta Games with 16 golds, 22 silver and 12 bronze. The US, Russia and Germany grabbed the top three places respectively. Four years later at Sydney, China leaped one place to secure overall third position with 28 golds, 16 silver and 15 bronze.

At Athens, China finished behind the US returning with a haul of 32-17-14 medals. And finally it was like a dream coming true at Beijing where China eclipsed the US amassing 51-21-28 medals to rule the world. The US had to be content with 36-38-36 medals.

It is, indeed, need of the hour that we should redevelop sports culture in a positive way taking China’s example as a barometer to lift the country’s sports graph.
 
French tennis chief Bernard Guidicelli admitted Sunday that Roland Garros, already controversially pushed back four months due to the coronavirus, could be staged behind closed doors.

Guidicelli, who said that the French federation (FFT) had "no regrets" over its unilateral decision to move the clay court Grand Slam from May 24-June 7 to September 20-October 4, insisted all options remain on the table.

"We haven't ruled out any option. Roland Garros is first and foremost a story of matches and players," he told the Journal du Dimanche.

"There is the tournament taking place in the stadium, and the tournament on TV screens.

"Millions of viewers around the world are waiting. Organising it behind closed doors would allow part of the business model -- television rights (which account for more than a third of the tournament's revenues) -- to go ahead. This cannot be overlooked."

The spread of the coronavirus has halted all tennis since mid-March and will not resume until July 13 at the earliest.

Wimbledon has already been cancelled for the first time since the Second World War.

The US Open, due to take place in New York from Aug 31-Sept 13, is also in question with a decision expected in mid-June.

Close to 500,000 fans regularly attend Roland Garros every year.

However, an indication as to the thinking around the 2020 edition came on Thursday when the FFT decided to reimburse all tickets bought for the original date of the tournament rather than transfer them.

Guidicelli admitted that the start of the rescheduled French Open could even be pushed back a further week to begin on September 27.

That would allow a two-week break between the US Open and Roland Garros.

"I have regular discussions with Andrea Gaudenzi (president of the ATP), Steve Simon (president of the WTA) and David Haggerty (head of the ITF) and another call is planned next week to see how we have progressed.

"We are working well together, but it is still a bit early to precisely determine the schedule."

Guidicelli is adamant that the FFT was right to shift the tournament back by four months with the death toll from the coronavirus in France standing at 26,310 by Saturday night.

"Roland Garros is the driving force of tennis in France, it is what feeds the players in our ecosystem (260 million euros in revenue, or 80% of the turnover of the FFT)," added Guidicelli, describing himself as the "good father".

"We think of them first, protecting them. We made a courageous choice and today, no one regrets it."

"A tournament without a date is a boat without a rudder -- we don't know where we're going.

"We positioned ourselves as far in the calendar as possible, anxious not to harm major events, so that no Masters 1000 or any Grand Slam would be affected. The turn of events seems to have proved us right."

https://www.afp.com/en/news/15/rola...sed-doors-says-french-tennis-boss-doc-1r92vw2
 
The top-flight of professional football in Spain hopes to restart on 12 June, league president Javier Tebas has said.

La Liga has been suspended since March but started testing players last week as it plans to resume training and play matches behind closed doors.

Five players from across Spain's top two divisions tested positive on Sunday but Tebas says regular testing will mean “practically zero” risk to players during games.

“I’d like it [the restart date] to be 12 June,” Tebas told Movistar.

“But we have to be careful. It will depend on many factors such as a potential rise in infections, factors which don’t depend on football but on Spanish society."

Spain is one of Europe's worst-hit countries but has begun easing its strict lockdown. Some Spaniards can meet at bars and restaurants from today.
 
No professional sport, even behind closed doors, will be staged in England until 1 June at the earliest, the UK government has announced.

The government has published a 50-page guidance document detailing how England will begin to ease lockdown measures.

Step two of that plan - which will not be allowed to start before 1 June - includes "permitting cultural and sporting events to take place behind closed doors for broadcast, while avoiding the risk of large-scale social contact".

The document states that reopening venues that attract large crowds such as sports stadia "may only be fully possible significantly later depending on the reduction in numbers of infections".

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/52619111
 
BoomBoomCricket said:
No professional sport, even behind closed doors, will be staged in England until 1 June at the earliest, the UK government has announced.

The government has published a 50-page guidance document detailing how England will begin to ease lockdown measures.

Step two of that plan - which will not be allowed to start before 1 June - includes "permitting cultural and sporting events to take place behind closed doors for broadcast, while avoiding the risk of large-scale social contact".

The document states that reopening venues that attract large crowds such as sports stadia "may only be fully possible significantly later depending on the reduction in numbers of infections".

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/52619111
Click to expand...
Interesting way to put it

Looks like sports will resume from 1st June onwards!
 
Tennis and fishing allowed from later this week in the UK

Unlimited exercise was announced on Sunday by the prime minister and now the strategy document has given more detail on what is and is not allowed.

Playing tennis and going fishing will be fine from Wednesday - as long as you are only with one member of your household.

People can now drive as far as they want to exercise.

However, team sports will not be permitted, except with a person from your own household, according to the strategy.

Playgrounds, outdoor gyms and "ticketed outdoor leisure venues" - where there is a higher risk of close contact - also remain off-limits under step one of the plans.

The reopening of such leisure facilities may only be "fully possible significantly later" depending on the reduction in infections, it added.

Sage - the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies - has said that the risk of transmission of coronavirus outdoors is far lower than in an enclosed space.
 
Top-level sport in England could restart behind closed doors from June 1 but spectators may not be able to attend venues until a vaccine is found
 
Denmark's Superliga to resume on May 28 says Danish League Association

Denmark's top-flight Superliga will resume on May 28 following a gap of more than two months due to the new coronavirus pandemic, the Danish League Association has said in a statement.

On Monday, Denmark entered its second phase of reopening society after a two-month lockdown, allowing the country's top football teams to resume playing.

The League Association said the season would restart without fans in the stadiums, and that it expected the campaign to conclude with the Europe playoff games on July 29. Elsewhere in Europe, some leagues are also set to resume, with the German Bundesliga due to start on May 16.
 
The Anniversary Games in London have been cancelled because of the coronavirus pandemic, UK Athletics has confirmed.

London Stadium had been scheduled to host the event - also part of the Diamond League season - on 4-5 July.

UK Athletics is "hugely disappointed" to cancel the Games, its chief executive Joanna Coates said.

"It will have a significant financial impact on UK Athletics and wider sport," Coates added.

"The revenue we generate from events - through ticketing, broadcast and sponsorship - helps administer the sport and provide the essential governance services that we, as an NGB [national governing body], oversee.

"But we must place the safety of the entire athletics family at the forefront of every decision we make during these unprecedented times and ensure we are following government advice."

In March, Coates said UK Athletics' finances would take "a hefty blow" if the global pandemic meant it could not be held at London Stadium, which is Premier League club West Ham's home ground.

UK Athletics modifies the stadium each summer to stage the track and field competition, but there is a possibility West Ham may still be using the stadium in July if the suspended football season resumes.

Faster than a teenage Dina Asher-Smith - meet Amy Hunt
Meanwhile, the Diamond League season will now run between August and October.

The shortened calendar - which includes the meet in Gateshead on 16 August - and varying training facilities and opportunities for athletes means the points system has also been revised.

Athletes will not earn points this season and there will not be a single, 24-discipline final in Zurich as originally planned.

Along with the London Diamond League event, Rabat and Zurich have also been cancelled.

Provisional Diamond League dates

14 Aug: Monaco

16 Aug: Gateshead

23 Aug: Stockholm

2 Sep: Lausanne

4 Sep: Brussels

6 Sep: Paris

17 Sep: Rome/Naples

19 Sep: Shanghai

4 Oct: Eugene

9 Oct: Doha

17 Oct: China (venue tbc)
 
Johnson: Sport events will provide much-needed boost

"Every day we shall monitor our progress," says Boris Johnson.

"If we stay on the downward slope, then and only then will it become safe to go further and move to the second step."

He explains this will include schools opening and potentially holding sporting events behind closed doors.

"This will provide a much-needed boost," he says.
 
Italian police on Tuesday arrested 91 suspected members of the Sicilian Mafia that were trying to exploit economic woes triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic, reports Lorenzo Tondo in Palermo.

Charges range from mafia association to extortion, fraudulent assets possession, receiving stolen goods, money laundering, drug trafficking, sporting fraud and fraud and arrests were made in Palermo and Milan.

According to Sicilian investigators, who launched the operation, mobsters were laundering extortion and drug trafficking revenue. The magistrates said bosses were preparing to use ill-gained cash to buy struggling businesses that shut down during the lockdown.

Police uncovered evidence that Cosa Nostra bosses were also rigging horse races across the country.

Authorities have also seized 15 million euros ($16.5 million) in suspected ill-gained assets, including 13 racehorses.
 
Football faces losing many clubs to bankruptcy because of the coronavirus pandemic, a club executive has warned.

Clubs across Europe have been denied commercial revenue with no games in most countries for at least two months and empty stadiums look likely for months ahead.

A slowdown in the multi-billion-dollar transfer market, and possible defaults on payments from player deals made before the shutdown, were cited as concerns by Lokomotiva Zagreb director Dennis Gudasic.

"I think the biggest threat to club football in the coming six months is going to be the survival of smaller clubs," Gudasic said during an online debate hosted on Wednesday by the International Centre for Sports Studies (CIES) at the University of Neuchatel in Switzerland.

He warned of a "drastic situation whereby we have maybe 100 or 200 clubs go bankrupt in September or October" if challenges facing smaller clubs are not understood.

Now, many clubs are looking for richer leagues to complete their seasons so that money paid by broadcasters for fulfilling contracts can revive the transfer market.

"This is where there is a lot of uncertainty," Gudasic said, adding some clubs in Croatia in terms of budgeting had become "actually addicted" to transfer revenue from their former players.

'Existential threat'
FIFA, football's world governing body, has agreed to be flexible with the typical July-August trading period in Europe as there is no clarity when the current season will end and the 2020-21 campaign will begin.

"This would be a good idea to make like a six months transfer window from summer to winter 2021," Sadowski said. "It would give all those clubs a chance to better plan transfers and their budgets."

Although English clubs face hardship if broadcast deals are not paid in full, the huge wealth gap in Europe was highlighted. Every English Premier League club will still be paid tens of millions of dollars this season, while Croatian clubs get 150,000 euros ($162,000) annually from domestic TV revenue, Gudasic said.

In March, European Club Association (ECA) leader Andrea Agnelli predicted clubs faced "an existential threat".

The Juventus president described the coronavirus outbreak as "the biggest challenge our game and industry has ever faced".

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020...bankrupt-due-coronavirus-200514064812169.html
 
Football clubs in League One have failed to agree whether to end the season early after talks today with the English Football League.
The 23 clubs, which are in the third tier of English football below the Premier League and the EFL Championship, will meet again on Monday.

BBC Sport understands there is a general acceptance among clubs in both League One and League Two that resuming the current campaign is impossible because of a lack of money.

But on Thursday six clubs said they had "no desire for voiding the season, points-per-game scenarios or letting a computer decide our footballing fate".
 
(Reuters) - The ATP Tour and International Tennis Federation (ITF) have extended their suspensions of professional tennis until July 31 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, they said on Friday.

The ATP and WTA announced in April that they were suspending all tournaments until July 13, with the WTA saying on Friday it had further suspended four events due to be held in July.

The WTA added that it will provide an update in June on the tournaments scheduled for the latter half of July.

The WTA Rogers Cup, which had been scheduled for Aug. 7-16 in Montreal, had already been postponed to 2021 after Quebec government prohibited holding events until Aug. 31, 2020.

ATP events in Hamburg, Bastad, Newport, Los Cabos, Gstaad, Umag, Atlanta and Kitzbuhel will not go ahead as scheduled, while WTA events in Bastad, Lausanne, Bucharest and Jurmala scheduled for July will not be held.

"Due to continued uncertainties surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, we regret to announce our decision to extend the suspension of the Tour," ATP Chairman Andrea Gaudenzi said in a statement here

“We continue to assess all of our options in an effort to resume the Tour as soon as it is safe to do so, including the feasibility of rescheduling events later in the season.”

While for tournament owners it is a blow, the decision was hardly unexpected.

The Croatia Open in the picturesque setting of Umag on the Adriatic is one of the most popular ATP tournaments and is in the process of improving the showcourt named after former Wimbledon champion Goran Ivanisevic.

“I believe that all of us will feel a bit empty without Stella Maris (the name of the venue) and its July buzz,” tournament director Lawrence Frankopan said.

“But the health and safety of our players and fans are the most important. This cancellation is an even bigger reason for all of us to feel excited about July 2021 and the 31st edition of the tournament.”

Organisers of the Austrian Open in Kitzbuhel said they were looking at rescheduling the claycourt tournament for September while Hamburg organisers were “focussing on a possible postponement of the tournament.”

“We have to closely monitor the rapidly evolving situation related to COVID-19 and we will wait for the next decisions of the ATP and the ITF regarding the North American swing, in particular the U.S. Open,” Hamburg tournament director Sandra Reichel said in a statement.

The Hall of Fame Open in Newport, Rhode Island has been cancelled and organisers said the Hall of Fame Class of 2020 induction ceremony will not take place. Spain’s Conchita Martinez and Ivanisevic will now be inducted in 2021.

The WTA said in a statement that it would make a decision on tournaments in Palermo and Karlsruhe, which were to begin on July 20 and 28 respectively, when the announcements to its revised calendar are made in June.

The ITF said all events — including ITF Juniors, Seniors, UNIQLO Wheelchair Tennis Tour, Beach Tennis Tour and the men’s and women’s ITF World Tennis Tour — would be suspended.

However, the ITF suspensions will not affect any of the Grand Slams with Wimbledon having already been cancelled for the first time since World War II.

The U.S. Open is scheduled to begin on Aug. 24 while the postponed French Open is now due to start on Sept. 20.
 
Celtic are expected to be crowned Scottish Premiership champions on Monday, BBC Radio 5 Live understands

Club Bruges are named Belgian champions after the season is brought to a premature halt

Professional tennis on the men's ATP and women's WTA tours has been suspended further.There will be no ATP events in July, while it is expected the WTA events in Palermo and Karlsruhe that month will also be cancelled.

World Rugby has confirmed that this summer's tours have been postponed because of travel restrictions due to the pandemic. Wales were due to tour Japan and New Zealand, with England also travelling to Japan. Scotland were scheduled to visit South Africa and New Zealand, with Ireland heading to Australia

Formula 1 and Silverstone have agreed a deal for two grands prix to be held at the British track this season. However, a new threat to the races has emerged in the UK government's plans to impose a two-week quarantine for all international arrivals
 
McIlroy was criticised for playing golf with Trump at his International Golf Club in Florida in 2017.

"We're in the midst of something that's pretty serious right now," McIlroy told the McKellar Golf Podcast.

"He's trying to politicise it and make it a campaign rally, saying that [the US] administers the most tests in the world like it's a contest.

"It's just not the way a leader should act and there is a bit of diplomacy that you need to show, and I just don't think he's shown that, especially in these times."

While admitting he enjoyed his 18 holes with the President three years ago, the world number one said it was not something he would do again.

"I don't know if he'd want to play with me again after what I just said," he continued.

"I know it's very self-serving of me to say 'no' and, if I don't, then it means then I'm not putting myself in position to be put under scrutiny and that I'm avoiding that. But I probably wouldn't, no.

"The day that I did spend with him and others was very enjoyable. He is very charismatic and was nice to everyone. He obviously has something, or he wouldn't be in the White House.

"That doesn't mean I agree with everything - or, in fact, anything - that he says."

McIlroy will lead golf's return after a two-month hiatus in a televised charity match in Florida on Sunday, when he will play with Dustin Johnson against Rickie Fowler and Matthew Woolfe in a $4m skins game in aid of Covid-19 charities.

With the backing of the PGA Tour, this will be seen as a first tentative step since the coronavirus lockdown, with no professional golf having been played since the Players Championship was abandoned after one round on 12 March.

"For us to go out and play a golf match, it's awesome that we can do that, bring some entertainment to quite a few people but also to help in some way," McIlroy told the PGA Tour website.

"What we're doing is a great thing, it's a very small piece of all this but I'm just happy to be able to help in some way and bring some joy to people, I guess, when they haven't had anything to really look forward to for a couple of months."

McIlroy also said he would play in all three PGA Tour events in June when the season resumes.

Competition is set to return behind closed doors at the Charles Schwab Colonial event in Texas on 11 June.

https://www.bbc.com/sport/golf/52677424
 
amir2.jpg

The subsitute bench for today's Borussia Dortmund match.
 
Socially distant goal celebration?

From today's Bundesliga game

5108.jpg
 
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Horse racing tracks in New York state can reopen without fans from 1 June, Governor Andrew Cuomo has announced.

New York Racing Association's Belmont Park and Saratoga have been listed among racetracks that can run with empty stands, similar to other circuits around the country.

"There'll be guidelines for the actual participants - no crowd, no fans," said Cuomo. "For the industry itself, for the televised viewers, that can still work."

The state reported 157 new deaths on Saturday.

In England, Newcastle racecourse will host the first fixture under plans for horse racing's return behind closed doors next month. If a return to action is approved by the government, the first meeting would also be held on 1 June
 
Russia allows foreign athletes entry

The Russian government said it would allow foreign athletes competing in its domestic sports leagues to enter the country as the number of cases of the novel coronavirus passed 280,000.

The government said athletes and coaches under contract with a Russian sports organisation would be put under medical observation and obliged to spend two weeks in quarantine upon their return to the country.

"The decision will help professional sports organisations, including the soccer clubs in the Russian Premier League, to resume training after the easing of measures linked to the spread of the coronavirus," the government said in a statement.
 
'Concrete plan' for European football to finish

The president of European football's governing body says it has a "concrete plan" to finish the season in August.

The Champions League and Europa League competitions, halted during the last-16 stage because of the coronavirus pandemic, look likely to be played exclusively in August.

Uefa president Aleksander Ceferin said the games will "have to be played without spectators", adding he hopes the "majority" of domestic leagues will complete the season.

In other sporting news:

Newcastle manager Steve Bruce says resuming Premier League under strict protocols would be safer than going to the "supermarket or putting in petrol"

But Bruce wants the planned 12 June restart put back so players can get "match fit"

Top-flight European clubs stand to lose more than £3.5bn because of the pandemic
 
Trump praises return of live golf, even without fans

U.S. President Donald Trump praised the return of live golf on Sunday, dialing into a televised broadcast of a two-on-two charity skins match between top players on the PGA Tour, the first event of its kind since the coronavirus lockdown.

World No. 1 Rory McIlroy, who is from Northern Ireland, teamed up with Dustin Johnson of the United States to take on American duo Rickie Fowler and Matthew Wolff for the highly anticipated event, one of the few live pro sports competitions on a calendar otherwise upended by the deadly COVID-19 outbreak.

“It’s a wonderful thing to see,” Trump said on the NBC Sports broadcast. “I’m getting a little tired of watching 10-year-old golf tournaments where you know who won.”

Players at the Seminole Golf Club in Juno Beach, Florida, adhered to social-distancing guidelines aimed at limiting the coronavirus spread, standing 6 feet (1.8 m) apart and carrying their own clubs, with no caddies allowed, on an empty course without the usual masses of eager fans.

An avid golfer, Trump has played rounds with current and former players including Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus and four-time major winner McIlroy, who last week criticized the president’s response to the coronavirus outbreak.

“We want to get sports back, we miss sports, we need sports in terms of the psyche, the psyche of our country and that’s what we’re going,” said Trump.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...-of-live-golf-even-without-fans-idUSKBN22T0TC
 
Celtic crowned Scottish Premiership champions for ninth successive season after SPFL opts to end 2019/20 campaign; Hearts are relegated to Championship
 
Fifa is in the process of organising a charity football match to help raise funds for the fight against coronavirus.

Gianni Infantino, president of world football's governing body, says the match will take place when global health conditions allow.

“Further details of this unique event, including the location, date, participants and format will be announced by the Fifa Foundation in due course," said Youri Djorkaeff, the foundation’s chief executive.

The former France midfielder added: “Various scenarios and plans are currently under consideration, all of which are in line with health and other relevant guidelines from respective governments and international organisations.”

The intention is to raise funds for Access to Covid-19 Tools, a WHO initiative that aims to ensure treatments, vaccines and diagnostics are accesible to all.
 
Formula 1 says it will be "impossible" to hold a British Grand Prix later this year if personnel are not given exemptions from plans to quarantine international travellers.

The UK government is set to require all arrivals from abroad to self-isolate for 14 days under quarantine rules expected to come into effect in early June.

An F1 spokesman added this would have an impact on tens of thousands of jobs.
 
Royal Ascot is to feature 36 races over five days should it take place as planned in June, organisers have announced in revealing its schedule.

The meeting is set for 16-20 June, subject to government approval of sporting events being held behind closed doors.

There will be seven races on the first four days, with eight on the final day.

The programme features several alterations, including six extra races being added across the five days.

The Buckingham Palace Handicap, which was lost from the card when the Commonwealth Cup was introduced in 2015, will open the meeting on Tuesday, 16 June at 1315 BST.

The total attendance over five days at last year's Royal Ascot meeting was more than 290,000.

"We are most grateful to the BHA's [British Horseracing Authority] race-planning team for their assistance in framing the additional races for this exceptional renewal of Royal Ascot," said Nick Smith, Ascot's director of racing and public affairs.

"We hope these extra opportunities will be welcomed by horsemen, broadcasters and the public at home.

"We are of course taking nothing for granted in terms of [the] government's final approval to permit behind-closed-doors sporting events from 1 June."
 
Tackling, sparring allowed in next stage for Britain's elite athletes

Soccer players will be able to tackle in close-contact training, and boxers spar with partners, in the next step towards Britain’s elite athletes returning to live sport after the COVID-19 lockdown, guidance published on Monday said.

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) guidance spelled out the second part of a five-stage framework to enable athletes to get match fit before any top level competition resumes.

“Stage Two training can be described as the resumption of close-contact training where pairs, small groups and/or teams will be able to interact in much closer contact,” it said.

Examples given include close quarters coaching, combat sports sparring, team sports tackling and the sharing of technical equipment such as balls, gloves and pads.

“The progression of training into Stage Two is vital to prepare fully for the return of competitive sporting fixtures in many sports,” added the document.

“Close contact training is required to replicate match formations and conditions, so that the sport-specific demands can be placed on the body, mind and senses.”

Premier League soccer players have returned to non-contact training in small groups with their clubs while respecting social distancing guidelines. Some have already expressed concerns, however.

The league was halted in mid-March but under ‘Project Restart’ hopes to get going again in June without spectators.

Stage One for returning to unrestricted elite competition was set out on May 13, and must be completed before embarking on the next phase.

The guidance said close contact training will be allowed only when sports bodies, clubs and teams deem conditions right to do so, following consultation with athletes, coaches and support staff.

Under stage two, athletes will still have to keep their distance before and after training and time spent closer than two metres in training should be kept to “a reasonable minimum”.

“The exemption on social distancing is for the period of actual training itself but not to activities which are peripheral,” it spelled out.

“In particular there should be no opportunity for social distancing to be breached between training clusters or between different sports.”

The guidance also said there should be no resumption of Stage Two training without a documented risk assessment and risk mitigation strategy.

https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-h...or-britains-elite-athletes-idUKKBN2300V8?il=0
 
LONDON (Reuters) - Soccer players will be able to tackle in close-contact training, and boxers spar with partners, in the next step towards Britain’s elite athletes returning to live sport after the COVID-19 lockdown, guidance published on Monday said.

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) guidance spelled out the second part of a five-stage framework to enable athletes to get match fit before any top level competition resumes.

“Stage Two training can be described as the resumption of close-contact training where pairs, small groups and/or teams will be able to interact in much closer contact,” it said.

Examples given include close quarters coaching, combat sports sparring, team sports tackling and the sharing of technical equipment such as balls, gloves and pads.

“The progression of training into Stage Two is vital to prepare fully for the return of competitive sporting fixtures in many sports,” added the document.

“Close contact training is required to replicate match formations and conditions, so that the sport-specific demands can be placed on the body, mind and senses.”

Premier League soccer players have returned to non-contact training in small groups with their clubs while respecting social distancing guidelines. Some have already expressed concerns, however.

The league was halted in mid-March but under ‘Project Restart’ hopes to get going again in June without spectators.

Stage One for returning to unrestricted elite competition was set out on May 13, and must be completed before embarking on the next phase.

The guidance said close contact training will be allowed only when sports bodies, clubs and teams deem conditions right to do so, following consultation with athletes, coaches and support staff.

Under stage two, athletes will still have to keep their distance before and after training and time spent closer than two metres in training should be kept to “a reasonable minimum”.

“The exemption on social distancing is for the period of actual training itself but not to activities which are peripheral,” it spelled out.

“In particular there should be no opportunity for social distancing to be breached between training clusters or between different sports.”

The guidance also said there should be no resumption of Stage Two training without a documented risk assessment and risk mitigation strategy.

https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-h...age-for-britains-elite-athletes-idUKKBN2300V8
 
The English football pyramid will be destroyed - unless the game starts to plan for the financial impact of Covid-19 beyond the 2019-20 season, says Phil Hodgkinson, the owner of Championship club Huddersfield.

Hodgkinson thinks as many as "50 or 60" clubs could go out of business. He is also looking at a "worst-case scenario" of no fans allowed in stadiums for the 2020-21 season.

"The problem is not whether we finish [this] season or not, it is what happens after that," he told BBC Sport.

"If we don't come to an agreement there will be no football pyramid. There are clubs I know of that are only still trading because they are deferring wages and [tax] and other creditors. They will need paying at some point."
 
What's the latest from South Asia?

Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan urged citizens to follow social distancing guidelines as the country marked Eid on Sunday. Eid congregations were held in open places and mosques across major cities and towns - while maintaining guidelines, local media reported.

Pakistan has more than 54,000 infections and 1,167 deaths

Bangladesh reported its biggest spike in daily deaths as 28 people with Covid-19 died on Sunday, taking the total toll to 480

In Sri Lanka, restrictions will be eased starting Tuesday, including the curfew being lifted during the day

And Nepal saw a jump in cases on Sunday, as 19 new infections took the total tally to more than 600
 
EuroLeague and EuropCup seasons terminated

Europe's top two club basketball competitions have been terminated this season without naming any winners due to the COVID-19 pandemic, organisers EuroLeague Basketball said.

"Having explored every possible option, the Executive Board has made the decision to cancel the 2019-20 EuroLeague and EuroCup," the organising body said on its official Twitter account.

The 2020-21 EuroLeague and EuroCup seasons will start on October 1 and September 30 respectively, said the statement, which added that the same 18 teams that contested this season's EuroLeague would also compete in the next campaign.
 
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