With the German Bundesliga resuming next week and other leagues around Europe making preparations to restart after the coronavirus-induced suspension, could France end up regretting the decision to call an early end to its football season?
That is the fear of Jean-Michel Aulas, the outspoken president of Lyon who had hoped Ligue 1 could still be played to a conclusion despite last week's announcement by the French Prime Minister that it "cannot restart" any time soon.
"Why rush into saying it's difficult to play before August, when we don't know if other countries are going to have the same judgement," he told sports daily L'Equipe.
"We should have done the political rounds of the other four major leagues."
Instead, the French league ended the season with 10 rounds of matches unplayed, crowning Paris Saint-Germain champions, relegating the bottom two, Amiens and Toulouse, and leaving Lyon seventh, denying them European qualification.
France is not alone. The Dutch season was ...

As European leagues plan for restart, will France regret stopping football season?

PTI Automatic

The German league announced Thursday it has pushed back the planned restart of the Bundesliga from Friday, May 15, until the following day.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has granted permission for the Bundesliga to resume behind closed doors with strict hygiene measures, plus regular testing of players and backroom staff.
Christian Seifert, CEO of the German Football League (DFL), confirmed on Thursday that matches will resume on Saturday, May 16.
Second-placed Borussia Dortmund host arch rivals Schalke in the Ruhr derby in the pick of the matches on the first day back.
Defending champions Bayern Munich, who sit four points clear of Dortmund, will travel to face Union Berlin on the Sunday.
The Bundesliga will be the first of Europe's top leagues to restart since the coronavirus pandemic forced lockdown measures across the continent.
Fixtures (all times GMT)
Saturday, May 16
Borussia Dortmund v Schalke 04, RB Leipzig v Freiburg, Hoffenheim v Hertha Berlin, Fortuna Duesseldorf v ...

Bundesliga moves restart from May 15 to following day

England fast bowler Mark Wood has said he is prepared to spend more than two months away from his family if that's what it takes to play this season's home international series amid the coronavirus pandemic.
According to a report in the Guardian, the plan is for the squad to be kept in an 'isolation bubble' so as to reduce the risk of players contracting COVID-19, with daily temperature checks and swabs also part of the regime.
Plans are now being discussed for England to play six Tests, six ODIs and six T20s in just over two months from the start of July, with the centrepiece two three-Test series against the West Indies and Pakistan.
The start of the English cricket has been delayed until July 1 at the earliest by the pandemic, with the West Indies series already postponed from its original June dates.
Trying to salvage lucrative men's internationals is the priority for the England and Wales Cricket Board, with chief executive Tom Harrison warning a complete wipeout of the 2020 ...

Wood willing to spend nine weeks in England camp

Veteran Brazilian international Formiga signed a one-year contract extension with Paris Saint-Germain's women's side on Thursday at the age of 42.
The midfielder, who has made a record 198 appearances for Brazil, penned a new deal which will keep her in the French capital until 2021.
Formiga is hoping to end her career at the Tokyo Olympics, which was postponed until next year due to the coronavirus pandemic.
She has played in seven World Cups and six Olympic Games and joined PSG from Brazilian club Sao Jose in 2017.
France forward Kadidiatou Diani and Danish star Nadia Nadim have also signed new contracts with PSG in recent weeks.
But former Liverpool midfielder Bruno Cheyrou will leave his position as sporting director for rivals Lyon.
PSG were three points behind Lyon when the women's top flight was ended last week because of the COVID-19 outbreak, with the French football federation set to decide the final standings on Monday.

Brazil great Formiga, 42, signs contract extension with PSG

InterContinental Hotels Group expects sales to have plunged by a record 80 per cent in April as the coronavirus outbreak shuts its chains, including Crowne Plaza and Holiday Inn.
IHG, the world's largest hotel operator by number of rooms, added that global revenue per available room -- a key industry measure -- tanked 55 percent in March, when the world implemented mass lockdowns to contain the deadly COVID-19 outbreak.  RevPAR slumped 25 percent over the first quarter from a year earlier, it added in a results statement.
"COVID-19 represents the most significant challenge both IHG and our industry have ever faced," said chief executive Keith Barr.  With around 15 percent of its hotels currently shut, including InterContinental sites, London-listed IHG has offered facilities to frontline health workers and the homeless.
"I would like to sincerely thank everyone at IHG... for the way they have responded to this challenge," Barr added in Thursday's release.
"This includes protecting the 

InterContinental Hotels sees sales collapse

The fate of the Serie A championship hung in the balance Thursday as state scientists huddled with football bosses in a desperate effort to save the pandemic-interrupted season.
The high stakes talks come with pressure mounting from sports-deprived fans and cash-starved sponsors for Italy to follow the German Bundesliga's lead and return to action.
Serie A began to descend into chaos at the end of February as the new coronavirus swept across Italy's north -- home to big teams such as Inter Milan and Juventus.
Several important matches were rescheduled. Some teams in the south played regularly and others in the north were not even able to train.
The league eventually threw up its hands and suspended the championship on March 9.
Fewer than 500 people had then died of the virus and the league was hoping to kick off again by early April.
Italy's official toll now stands at almost 30,000 and the time to pin the Scudetto badge on the shirts of the undisputed Serie A champion is running ...

Italy decides fate of suspended football season

Competitive rugby will return this year despite the coronavirus pandemic, the chief medical officer of World Rugby has predicted.
Eanna Falvey said domestic, provincial or club games would likely return first, progressing to Tests, with Australia and New Zealand best-placed to get the ball rolling.
Global rugby is suspended due to the pandemic but Falvey said he could see light at the end of the tunnel.
"I would be very surprised if there isn't some competitive rugby before the end of the year," he told the Irish Times.
"I wouldn't be surprised if there is quite a bit of competitive rugby and I would say that we are probably going to get cleverer in how we can monitor players."
The Irishman said Australia and New Zealand, much less hard-hit than Europe by COVID-19, were probably "reasonably close" to getting back into training.  Falvey set out a scenario for the return of international rugby, though he admitted a second or third wave of the virus would change the outlook.
"For ...

Rugby will likely return this year, says World Rugby medical chief

Australia's National Rugby League backed down Thursday on a demand that players undergo compulsory flu vaccinations before playing in a resumed competition, clearing another hurdle in its bid to restart its virus-interrupted season on May 28.
The jabs had been included in strict health protocols agreed by the league in return for clearance to resume play, but several players had refused the injections.
On Thursday, the NRL announced that players could decline the vaccination for "compelling reasons" such as medical, religious or conscientious grounds if they signed a liability waiver acknowledging their heightened risk of contracting influenza.
"Until an NRL-approved release is acknowledged and signed by players, they will not be permitted to train," the league said in a statement.
It was not immediately clear if Australian health authorities had approved the exemptions, after both Prime Minister Scott Morrison and his powerful home affairs minister, Peter Dutton, insisted on a "no ...

NRL backs down on compulsory flu shots before season restart

Tennis Australia conceded Thursday that January's Australian Open faces cancellation under a worst-case scenario, but said it was looking at a range of options in hope the COVID-19 crisis eases.
This year's tennis calendar has been suspended until at least July 13 and, with global borders closed, there is uncertainty about when the international circuit can resume.
The season-opening Grand Slam is scheduled to take place in Melbourne from January 18-31, more than eight months away, and Tennis Australia said it would abide by whatever restrictions were in place at that time.
"We've certainly made no secret about the number of scenarios that we're looking at," a spokeswoman told AFP.
"We're hoping for the best but planning for everything."
Possibilities range from cancellation to imposing quarantine on overseas players and allowing only Australian fans into the event.
"We have to look at all the angles because a lot of the decisions will be beyond our control and related to government ..

Australian Open organisers admit cancellation possible

The Premier League is adamant that it can overcome huge logistical challenges to get players back on the pitch during the coronavirus crisis but has long since accepted there will be no fans in the stadiums.
English Football Association chairman Greg Clarke became the latest senior figure to admit this week that social-distancing guidelines make it impossible for supporters to congregate in stadiums "any time soon".
The drive behind the Premier League's "Project Restart" is the attempt to avoid having to pay back millions in TV revenue. Clubs could reportedly miss out on 762 million pound ($946 million) for failing to complete this season alone.
According to UEFA's latest European Club Footballing Landscape report, just 13 percent of the Premier League's revenue comes from gate receipts.
England's top tier therefore has the luxury many other leagues cannot afford of trying to ride out the economic storm without paying fans coming to watch in the stadium.
"We might not like it, it ...

Will Premier League with no fans be worth the wait?

The decision to end the French Ligue 1 season early brought celebrations in Marseille, who are looking forward to a return to the Champions League thanks to the fine work done by coach Andre Villas-Boas, but it remains to be seen if he will stay at a club with major financial problems.
Marseille were second when the season was suspended in mid-March with 10 games remaining. They were well behind leaders Paris Saint-Germain but well clear of the chasing pack, so nobody disputes they are worthy runners-up after the French government dashed hopes of the campaign restarting.
In an Instagram post, Villas-Boas called it an "extraordinary achievement".
Marseille have not been in the Champions League since 2013, but they had finished fifth last season under Rudi Garcia and Villas-Boas knew he was arriving at a club with little money to spend.
He had to do without arguably Marseille's best player, the winger Florian Thauvin, for almost the whole campaign because of injury, but the Portuguese ..

Villas-Boas leads Marseille back into Champions League but doubts linger over future

Football's lawmakers are this week set to announce a "temporary" change to the laws of the sport allowing teams to make up to five substitutions in games when the sport resumes after the coronavirus-induced suspension.
The proposal to help teams cope with likely fixture congestion in a packed calendar was made by world governing body FIFA and is expected to be validated by the International Football Association Board (IFAB) this Friday.
The IFAB said last week that it was working with FIFA on a "temporary dispensation of Law 3 (The Players) allowing competitions to give teams the option to use a maximum of five substitutes on up to three occasions during the match, plus at half-time."
Limiting the number of occasions on which teams can make changes would remove the incentive to do so purely for time-wasting purposes.
A sixth change may also be permitted in matches that go to extra time.  Currently teams can make three substitutions during games, although since 2018 teams have been ...

Football set to allow five substitutions in 'temporary' response to virus suspension

The International Olympic Committee revealed plans to hold its next session initially scheduled for Tokyo before the opening of the 2020 Games by video link to be streamed live on July 17.
A statement from the IOC's Lausanne headquarters said a remote session was on the cards after this summer's Games were delayed a year and because of the "measures being implemented in Switzerland and around the world to contain the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic".
"The IOC Executive Board (EB) will discuss holding the 136th IOC Session remotely through a secure electronic system on Friday 17 July 2020, from 12 to 4 p.m. CEST; and the plan is for it to be live streamed," the statement read.
The agenda and organisation of the IOC Session, including a secure electronic voting system, will be worked out by the EB who hold their next meeting remotely on May 14.
The Tokyo Games scheduled for July 24 to August 9 were postponed on March 24 for one year due to the virus which has killed over 250,000 around .

IOC plans to hold cancelled Tokyo session remotely

Anthony Joshua's promoter says the world champion's next title defence may not be staged behind closed doors despite the coronavirus crisis.
Eddie Hearn is considering moving Joshua's next fight against Kubrat Pulev, which was originally scheduled for the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on June 20.
The London bout has been postponed indefinitely due to the pandemic and Hearn would be willing to move it to the Middle East if an audience is allowed there.
Joshua beat Andy Ruiz to take the WBA, IBF, WBO and IBO heavyweight titles in Saudi Arabia in December.
Hearn has already suggested he might stage the clash between Dillian Whyte and Alexander Povetkin in an empty venue, but the financial implications of doing the same with Joshua make it unworkable.
"We're not going to go to AJ and say, mate, there's 10 million pound less in the pot - we've got to get creative," Hearn told Boxing Social on Wednesday.
"These countries are going to be up and running a lot quicker than our country or ...

Joshua bout may not be behind closed doors: promoter

NBA team facilities are set to reopen for individual player workouts on Friday in areas where state and local governments have eased coronavirus lockdown restrictions.
It's the first small step on the road to resuming a 2019-20 NBA campaign that was shut down March 12 after Utah's Rudy Gobert tested positive for COVID-19, even though the league has unveiled no timetable to return and says it could change its workout plan based on updated virus news.
About a month of the regular season remains unplayed. Two months of playoff games were to have started almost three weeks ago.
"We're excited... to take that first small step toward returning to play. We miss the competition. We miss the camaraderie," Utah Jazz executive vice president of basketball operations Dennis Lindsey said in a posting on the club website.
"We're going to ramp up systematically. The biggest goal is to have the confidence of the players and the staff that they can enter our facility safely."
Not every team can open ..

NBA players can start solo workouts at team sites Friday

A war of words has broken out among rival South African football organisations ahead of a meeting Thursday to discuss the future of the 2019/2020 league season.
The novel coronavirus pandemic forced the suspension during March of the richest African national championship with a 15 million rand ($800,000/740,000 euros) first prize.
The meeting will involve league officials, who are keen to complete a season in which the 16 clubs have between six and nine fixtures to fulfil.
Premiership boss Irvin Khoza says they hope to complete the season by July 31, provided they get the go-ahead from government health officials.
"There are two conditions we have to meet before considering restarting the league -- first and foremost saving lives, then preserving livelihoods by playing football," he said.
Asked if he had contacted the South African Football Association (Safa), the supreme football body in the republic regarding a restart, Khoza replied: "No, not as yet."
There is a history of ...

War of words as South Africa ponder football league restart

The head of English women's cricket will accept the England men's team being made the priority this season if that helps safeguard the long-term future of the game.
England and Wales Cricket Board chief executive Tom Harrison said on Tuesday that a season without any play could cost the governing body 380 million pound (USD 469 million).
The start of the English season has been delayed until July 1 at the earliest, with Harrison making it clear that men's international matches are first in line to be salvaged.
England's women are due to play home series against India, delayed from its original June date, and South Africa in September this year.
"If the international women's schedule can't be fulfilled in full, but a large amount of the international men's programme can this summer, which is going to reduce that 380m pound hole, we have to be realistic about that," Clare Connor, the ECB's managing director of women's cricket, told reporters in a conference call on Wednesday.
"In order .

English women's cricket chief braced for season cancellation

David Beckham's Major League Soccer team made a welcome return to training even if a raft of coronavirus protocols brutally laid bare the problems of battling a global pandemic and resuming normal service.
Inter Miami were one of four MLS franchises to have players working out at their training facilities for the first time since the league was suspended on March 12 as the COVID-19 crisis wreaked havoc upon the sporting world.
MLS, who have suspended play until June 8 at the earliest, are allowing all clubs to have their players return based on advice from their local and state health authorities.
Orlando, Atlanta and Sporting Kansas also took up the option yet during a video call with reporters, Inter Miami sporting director Paul McDonough, sounded a note of caution for anyone hoping top level sport in the United States is heading for a swift return.
McDonough was delighted to have virtually a full squad reporting back for duty, with players only allowed on site after answering an ...

Inter Miami among MLS clubs making careful return to training

Juventus star Paulo Dybala revealed that he has been given the all-clear six weeks after contracting coronavirus, but Serie A rivals Torino confirmed that one of their players had tested positive.
"Many people talked in the past weeks ... but I can finally confirm that I am healed. Thank you once again for your support and my thoughts on all who are still suffering from it. Take care," tweeted the 26-year-old Argentina forward.
But city rivals Torino revealed that an unnamed player had been diagnosed with COVID-19 during testing of players and staff as Serie A teams return to individual training this week.
"During the first medical tests carried out on the Torino FC players, a positivity to COVID-19 emerged," the northern club said in a statement.
"The football player, currently asymptomatic, was immediately placed in quarantine and will be constantly monitored."
Torino have been one of the clubs to express concerns about a return to competition as Italy grapples with a pandemic which 

Dybala gets coronavirus all-clear but Torino player tests positive

CONCACAF chief Victor Montagliani said the disruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic would likely force changes to the structure of the region's qualifying competition for the 2022 World Cup.
In an interview with Canada's Onesoccer.com website, Montagliani said he expected CONCACAF's traditional "Hexagonal" final round of qualifying would have to be scrapped under the reforms.
For the 2018 World Cup, six teams played in a home-and-away round-robin group with the top three teams from North America, Central America and the Caribbean qualifying directly for the finals in Russia and the fourth place team entering a playoff.
However Montagliani said the global sporting shutdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic would likely mean the loss of important FIFA international windows ahead of the 2022 World Cup, meaning reforms to the qualifying structure were inevitable.
"I think on the balance of probabilities in terms of what has happened so far, and what likely will continue to happen, the .

CONCACAF chief eyes World Cup qualifying overhaul

Germany captain Manuel Neuer says Bundesliga footballers have an "enormous responsibility" after the league announced it will restart from May 15, having been granted permission to resume from Angela Merkel's government.
The German Football League (DFL) confirmed the restart date for the top two divisions, with the clubs to finalise details in a video conference on Thursday.
Earlier, German Chancellor Merkel gave permission for the Bundesliga to resume behind closed doors, amid strict hygiene measures and regular testing of players.
It will be the first of Europe's top leagues to restart since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
"People will be looking at us from other European countries, indeed all over the world," Bayern Munich goalkeeper Neuer told Frankfurt-based newspaper FAZ.
"This is an enormous responsibility for us, which we must be aware of with every fibre. It is now up to us."
He said the players must ensure the league returns successfully.
"Now it is up to each ...

AFP

AFP

Page 11 - Afp/pti