Argentine football legend Diego Maradona has asked the "Hand of God" to deliver the world from the coronavirus pandemic and allow normal life to resume.
The World Cup winner referred to his hand-assisted goal in the 1986 World Cup after Argentine football chiefs voted to end the current season as well as suspend relegation, saving Maradona-managed bottom club Gimnasia from the drop.
"Today this happened to us and many people say it is a new Hand of God," said Maradona, alluding to his infamous goal against England.
"But today I'm asking for that hand to end this pandemic so people can go back to living their lives, healthy and happy."
Then-Argentine captain Maradona responded to the controversy over his goal at the World Cup in Mexico by saying "it was the Hand of God!" Argentina went on to beat England 2-1 in the quarter-final.
On being thrown a lifeline by the suspension of the season, he told Argentine daily Clarin: "It's not the ending we had wanted, we were convinced we could ...

Maradona pleads for 'Hand of God' to end pandemic

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A police report obtained by AFP showed that suspicions of impropriety against fallen FIFA boss Sepp Blatter over a controversial TV deal "were well-founded" despite Swiss prosecutors dropping the case.
Swiss legal chiefs suspected Blatter of having signed a "contract unfavourable to FIFA" with the Caribbean Football Union (CFU) then led by Jack Warner, who has since been banned from football for life and charged with corruption by American justice officials.
The deal had granted television rights for the 2010 and 2014 World Cups to the CFU for $600,000 (536,000 euros), an amount deemed to be significantly below market price.
"Blatter acted more in Warner's interests than those of FIFA," said one of the documents from the investigation.
"By failing to assert a claim by FIFA against the CFU when he found out about it, Blatter accepted that Warner would therefore illegally enrich himself at the expense of FIFA," added the investigators.
As a result of "the inaction of Blatter against the 

Suspicions over Blatter in FIFA TV deal 'well-founded', say Swiss police

The Austrian Grand Prix, now set to be the first race of the coronavirus-hit Formula One world championship, will only be given the green light on condition it is raced behind closed doors.
Organisers of the July 5 grand prix at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg were told by the country's health minister on Wednesday that certain guarantees have to be met.
"Authorisation to stage the event depends entirely on the security plan that the organisers present," Rudolf Anschober told Radio O1.
"We will only allow such events under very strict conditions and of course, I think it goes without saying, without a crowd."
He told the Austrian Press Agency (APA): "We have done our part."
The government wants the race weekend to be organised on a "closed circuit" with the only people outside of the teams allowed being Austrians involved in the management of the race.
Earlier this week, Formula One boss Chase Carey targeted the season starting in Austria after the French Grand Prix was cancelled and ..

Austrian GP 'must be behind closed doors', insists minister

UK Athletics said it had at last handed over an internal report into its relationship with banned American coach Alberto Salazar during the time he worked with track star Mo Farah to Britain's national anti-doping agency.
The report dates back to 2015 and was prompted by a BBC documentary on Salazar.
The disgraced coach is currently serving a four-year ban imposed by the United States Anti-Doping Agency in October for offences that include trafficking in testosterone, tampering with the doping control process and administering illicit infusions of the fat-burning substance L-carnitine.
Salazar, who denies wrongdoing, has appealed against the ban to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
Just over a month ago, an independent review of both the 2015 report and another undertaken two years later, was published.
But United Kingdom Anti-Doping executive chief Nicole Sapstead demanded to see the original report in full after UK Athletics merely provided an edited summary.
UK Athletics ...

UK Athletics hands over Salazar file to British anti-doping agency

The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum has said it is cancelling this year's induction ceremony due to health and safety concerns from the coronavirus pandemic.
A statement from the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, said the organisation's board of directors had voted unanimously to scrap this year's event scheduled for July 24-27.
Instead the class of 2020, which includes former New York Yankees star Derek Jeter, Marvin Miller, Ted Simmons and Larry Walker, will be inducted alongside the class of 2021 next year.
"The Board of Directors' overriding concern is the health and well-being of our new inductees, our Hall of Fame members, our wonderful fans and the hundreds of staff," said Jane Forbes Clark, chairman of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.
"We care deeply about every single person who visits Cooperstown."
"In heeding the advice of government officials as well as federal, state and local medical and scientific experts, we chose to act with extraordinary .

Baseball Hall of Fame ceremony axed due to virus fears

Italian sports minister Vincenzo Spadafora has warned  that Italy may have to follow France and the Netherlands and call an end to their football and sports seasons because of the coronavirus pandemic.
However, Italian Football Federation chief Gabriele Gravina warned that such a decision would signal "the death of Italian football".
"I see an increasingly narrow path for the resumption of the championship. If I were a president of a football club, I would especially think of organising myself to safely resume the next championship which will start at the end of August," Spadafora told Italian television channel La 7.
"The decisions being taken by other countries, like France yesterday, could push Italy to follow this line too, which would then become a European line," he added.
In France, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe announced Tuesday that professional football, rugby and other sports cannot resume until the end of the summer, although his sports minister later told AFP it was ...

Minister warns Serie A return doubtful, federation boss fears 'football death'

Martin Braithwaite was Barcelona's emergency signing in February, a quick-fix to replace the injured Ousmane Dembele, but for him the move goes back 10 years to a broken leg and a notebook.
In his first meeting with the club's president Josep Maria Bartomeu and technical secretary Eric Abidal, Braithwaite was told one of the main reasons Barca were buying him was his mentality.
"I felt like they really knew me," Braithwaite says in an interview with AFP.
"They knew how strong I am mentally and they said that was one of the things that made them go for me. They thought I was up for the test."
The toughness they saw owes much to when Braithwaite was 18 and playing for Esbjerg FB in Denmark. A broken leg prompted him to transform his attitude and start writing objectives down in a notebook.
"I was already a professional footballer but I wasn't respecting the job and I wasn't respecting the boy that had a dream to be here," Braithwaite says.
"I took it for granted." A year later, ...

Braithwaite: People see me as the emergency signing but I deserve to be at Barca

Many footballers dread the rigours of pre-season training but in China they could be forgiven for hating it by now as stop-start preparations drag into a fifth month because of the coronavirus.
The Chinese Super League (CSL) was one of the earliest sporting victims of the pandemic with the February 22 start date indefinitely postponed in January.
The CSL could now begin in late June or early July but the uncertainty has left teams at all three levels of professional football treading water since the start of the year.
"Everyone was expecting the season would start at the end of February but now we don't know exactly when it will begin," AC Milan legend Roberto Donadoni, coach of second-division Shenzhen FC, told AFP in a recent interview.
"This is the biggest problem for me and everybody because when you know the exact start date, you put your focus on this day."
The never-ending pre-season -- punctuated by short holidays and periods of quarantine -- is the opposite of the problem ...

Coronavirus condemns Chinese football to endless pre-season

Italy's sports minister has cast doubt on the resumption of Serie A leaving title-chasing Lazio fearing that history could repeat itself and deny them the Scudetto for the second time.
But with its president Claudio Lotito as the main driving force, the Roman club are determined that the Italian football league will resume despite the pandemic of the new coronavirus.
At stake, a Scudetto that Lazio see as being at their fingertips and the fear of reliving a nightmare going back 105 years.
Lazio missed out on the title the only previous time that football was suspended in Italy after the country's entry into the First World War in May 1915.
Genoa were controversially awarded the title. Lazio still claim it should have been shared.
This season Lazio were second in Serie A, just one point behind Juventus when the championship was suspended on March 10.
The club are chasing a third league crown in their 120-year history after 2000 and 1974, the latter a season which had been threatened by 

Lazio cling to Serie A dream as 105-year-old nightmare looms

The United States recorded 2,502 coronavirus deaths in the past 24 hours, according to the latest real-time tally on Wednesday reported by Johns Hopkins University.
After two days of a relative easing in the toll on Sunday and Monday, the numbers have spiked again the past two days.
At least 60,853 people have now died in the country, according to the Baltimore-based university.

US records 2,502 coronavirus deaths in past 24 hours: Tracker

US President Donald Trump said Wednesday he'll resume flying around the country from next week and looks forward to holding "wild" campaign rallies as soon as he can.
Trump told reporters in the White House that he is "going to Arizona next week and we look forward to that." This will be his first cross-country trip since the coronavirus pandemic shut down much of the United States.
He added that he will visit Ohio, one of the key swing states in the November presidential election, "very soon." The Arizona trip is focused on the economic recovery effort and is not a campaign rally, "because it's too soon" for crowded events in stadiums, Trump explained.
But the Republican -- facing a tight re-election battle against Democratic challenger Joe Biden and burdened by dire approval ratings -- made clear he wants to get back to his once frequent rallies as soon as possible.
"Hopefully in the not too distant future we'll have some massive rallies and people will be sitting next to each ...

Trump says will resume travelling next week

Twitter said Wednesday it would allow researchers to access data on real-time conversations about the coronavirus pandemic to help deepen their understanding of the disease.
The project is aimed at gathering information about the spread of the illness, assessing the emergency response and communication trends during the crisis, and tackling misinformation.
"This is a unique dataset that covers many tens of millions of tweets daily," the US social network said in a blog.
"The conversations happening on Twitter are highly insightful and have the potential to help the world better understand the COVID-19 pandemic."
Access to Twitter's real-time data could also help develop artificial intelligence tools for scientists working to quell the global outbreak.
"Public conversation can help the world learn faster, solve problems better and realize we're all in this together," Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey said.
European Commission vice president Vera Jourova, who is responsible for disinformation ...

Twitter offers data to researchers studying virus

The IMF board on Wednesday approved $220 million in emergency aid for Afghanistan to help the country deal with the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
"The pandemic is inflicting heavy damage on Afghanistan's economy, which is expected to contract sharply in 2020, imperiling the livelihood of a significant segment of the population," the IMF said in a statement.
The funds from the Washington-based crisis lender will "help meet the urgent" financing needs as the authorities boost critical health spending and roll out social assistance to households hit hard by the crisis.
War-ravaged Afghanistan will see its economy contract this year "leading to a rise in unemployment and poverty."
The loan comes from the IMF's Rapid Credit Facility, which has been ramped up and doubled in size to get aid quickly to the world's poorest nations, which are most vulnerable to the economic effects of shutdowns to contain the outbreak.
A country can receive up to two loans from the facility in a .

IMF approves $220 mn loan for Afghanistan amid coronavirus

Mozambique President Filipe Nyusi on Wednesday prolonged by a month the state of emergency ordered on April 1 to try to slow the spread of coronavirus infections.
"We concluded that the reasons that led to the introduction of a state of emergency (still) prevail," said the president.
Under the state of emergency, movement of people within the country is restricted, schools are shut and no foreigners are allowed into the country.
"We need to reinforce the application of the measures adopted," said Nyusi.
Infections in the southern African country have now risen to 76, of which more than three-quarters originated from Total's LNG project site in northern Mozambique.
The French company owns a $25-billion stake in a liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in the Cabo Delgado province, near the border with Tanzania.

Mozambique extends coronavirus restrictions

UEFA's medical committee believes restarting seasons suspended because of the coronavirus pandemic "is definitely possible", just as several European countries are ruling out attempts to return to action.
"All football organisations which are planning the restart of their competitions will produce comprehensive protocols... ensuring that the health of those involved in the games is protected and the integrity of public policy is preserved," said UEFA's medical committee chairman, Tim Meyer, in a statement on Wednesday.
"Under these conditions and in full respect of local legislation, it is definitely possible to plan the restart of competitions suspended during the 2019/20 season."
The comments come a day after the chairman of FIFA's medical committee, the Belgian Michel D'Hooghe, said he was "sceptical" about restarting league football during the pandemic and suggested national competitions concentrate on getting ready for next season instead.
"My proposal is if it is possible, avoid 

Resuming football season 'definitely possible', claims UEFA medical committee

Top US health and infectious disease specialist Anthony Fauci has raised the prospect of US professional sports leagues cancelling their seasons if the safety of players and fans cannot be guaranteed.
In an interview with the New York Times, Fauci said the key to ending the coronavirus sports lockdown would be widespread testing across North America that delivers speedy results.
Sport in North America ground to a standstill in March as the COVID-19 pandemic swept across the continent, with every major professional league either suspending or delaying their respective seasons.
Severals leagues are now studying ways that could allow for a return to competition, with basketball and baseball mulling plans which include sequestering teams in locked down locations and playing games in empty arenas.
Fauci however believes that leagues may need to confront the option of cancelling a season if safety cannot be guaranteed.
"Safety, for the players and for the fans, trumps everything," Fauci ...

Fauci warns US leagues may have to cancel seasons

Schalke 04 are returning 8,000 litres of beer which has sat in tanks at their stadium since the German league halted in mid-March because of the coronavirus.
Veltins, who sponsor Schalke's stadium, will take back the beer which was left over from the last home game, a 1-1 draw with Hoffenheim on March 7.
The sobering news was confirmed by brewer Ludger Hoppelshaeuser, who is responsible for beer supply at Schalke's Veltins Arena, which has a capacity of 52,000 litres of ale for thirsty fans.
"Yes, we'll have the beer picked up," he told German daily Bild.
"But Schalke fans can be assured: when football with spectators is allowed again, the stadium's tanks will be filled to capacity with fresh beer."
The German Football League (DFL) hopes the Bundesliga can resume next month behind closed doors, but experts predict it will be months before fans will be able to watch live football again.

Sobering thought as Schalke 04 hand back 8,000 litres of beer

French football clubs are bracing themselves for a major financial hit after Tuesday's government announcement that the current season would not be allowed to restart, with the uncertainty leaving even all-powerful Paris Saint-Germain facing potentially serious consequences.
Clubs had been optimistic that the season -- suspended in mid-March with 10 games remaining -- would be allowed to resume in mid-June behind closed doors.
That would have guaranteed revenue from television, but Prime Minister Edouard Philippe delivered a hammer blow in an address to the National Assembly as he detailed plans to ease the strict lockdown introduced to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
"The 2019-2020 professional sports leagues, notably football, cannot restart," Philippe said, while adding that gatherings of over 5,000 people would remain outlawed until September.
The French league will now meet on Thursday "to analyse the sporting and economic consequences" of the government announcement. The ...

French football ponders next steps after being told season cannot restart

The Women's PGA Championship has been rescheduled for October as the US-based LPGA Tour announced on Wednesday it plans to restart its 2020 season in mid-July.
The major, one of five in the women's game, was due to take place at Aronimink Golf Club in Pennsylvania in late June but has now been moved to October 8-11.
Other tournaments set to take place in Michigan, Arkansas and Ohio in June and early July have also been postponed.
"One thing that has become clear is that there will be no 'opening bell' regarding a return to safe play in this new normal of the COVID-19 pandemic," said LPGA commissioner Mike Whan.
"To be honest, being 'first' has never been the goal when it comes to returning to play in this new normal. We have built a schedule that we think is as safe as possible."
The LPGA Tour is now due to resume on July 15 at the Dow Great Lakes Bay Invitational tournament in Michigan followed by events in Ohio and New Jersey.
The LPGA also announced increases in prize money at many 

Women's PGA Championship postponed as LPGA plans July restart

Manchester United have been granted permission to install 1,500 safe-standing seats for use in a trial when Old Trafford is opened again to supporters.
The use of barrier seating has been approved following a change in regulations and a feasibility study carried out by the club.
Fans are not expected to be permitted to attend matches for at least a number of months with English football indefinitely suspended due to the coronavirus outbreak.
Even when matches do return, they will likely take place behind closed doors for the forseeable future.
However, United insist work can be carried out on the project whilst respecting social distancing guidelines to ensure it is ready for when fans can return.
"It may seem strange to talk about stadium plans at this time, but football and our fans will return when it is safe, and our preparations for that must continue in the background," said United's managing director Richard Arnold.
"This announcement is the latest step in what has been a long .

Man Utd given permission to trial safe standing at Old Trafford

German football great Franz Beckenbauer's trial on corruption charges linked to the 2006 World Cup has ended without a verdict after previously being put on hold because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The five-year-long trial, held in Switzerland, of 74-year-old Beckenbauer and three other men was suspended because of the health crisis and the statute of limitations has now expired.
Beckenbauer, who headed the organising committee for the 2006 World Cup, had denied the allegations.
FIFA said on Tuesday it was disappointed that the trial would not proceed.
"FIFA is deeply disappointed that the trial related to the FIFA World Cup Germany 2006 will not take place because it has now become time barred," world football's governing body said in a statement.
"The fact that the case has now ended without a result of any kind is very worrying, not only for football but also for the administration of justice in Switzerland."
FIFA said it hoped the "truth" around the payment of 10 million Swiss ...

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