Espanyol and Leganes fans, holding current season tickets, will be handed free passes for the entire 2020-2021 campaign to compensate for missing matches due to the shutdown caused by the coronavirus pandemic, the two La Liga clubs said on Tuesday. The Spanish top-flight is set to resume in June after being provisionally suspended in March with 11 rounds of matches remaining but, as in Germany’s Bundesliga, fans cannot attend the games in order to prevent...
The International Basketball Federation (FIBA) on Tuesday published recommendations on returning to basketball in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The recommendations, which were published in the English, French and Spanish languages, are titled “Return to Basketball – Restart Guidelines for National Federations’’. A basketball-specific “Risk Assessment Tool’’ has also been produced in collaboration with the World Health Organisation (WHO). The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that FIBA is the world governing body for...
Two people from two English Premier League (EPL) clubs have tested positive for the coronavirus after a second batch of testing, the Premier League said on Saturday. Since the players returned to limited group training on Tuesday, eight positive tests for the virus have been confirmed from England’s top flight clubs. “The Premier League can today (Saturday) confirm that on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, 996 players and club staff were tested for COVID-19. Of these,...
The Danish Super League is set to restart on May 28 and clubs have been quite inventive when it comes to coping with having to play behind closed doors. The first match, after a coronavirus-related break of two-and-a-half months, is a regional derby between Aarhus and Randers, then come the last two rounds of the regular season, followed by the championship round with the best six teams. While the fans can’t come into the stadium...
The Enugu State Boxers Association (ESBA) on Thursday distributed food items to boxers in the state as palliative to cushion the effect of COVID-19. The items including bags of rice, Garri, salt, cartons of tomato paste, spices and cash, were donated by Mr Chales Ike, a board member of the association. Ike, board, a businessman, had in time past, donated a boxing ring to boxers in the state. Mr Ebere Amaraizu, ESBA Vice-Chairman, while distributing the...
Liverpool manager Juergen Klopp believes it is the right time for England’s Premier League (EPL) to resume after a two-month stoppage due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Premier League hopes to restart its season in June, having been suspended since mid-March. Its plans were given a boost after the government last week opened the door for competitive football to resume. Premier League clubs have been given permission to train in small groups and Klopp said...
Brazilian football could restart at the end of June, the secretary-general of the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF), Walter Feldman, said on Tuesday. This is coming in spite of the fact that the number of coronavirus cases is still rising in South America’s hardest-hit nation. Feldman said the return to action in the German Bundesliga, where nine first division games were played last weekend after a two-month hiatus, was a positive example for world football. “It...
The International Cricket Council (ICC) has recommended rules to ban the use of saliva to shine cricket balls in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. A statement on ICC website on Tuesday said that the age-old trick of using saliva to shine a cricket ball could be a thing of the past when the sport resumed due to the recommendation by ICC executive committee. The committee, chaired by Anil Kumble, a former Indian spinner unanimously...
Staging football matches without spectators must only be a short-term fix during the COVID-19 pandemic as the prolonged absence of fans could damage the game, former Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger says. The German Bundesliga became the first major football league to resume since the novel coronavirus outbreak shut down sports earlier this year. The Bundesliga return behind closed doors is now being closely watched by other leagues. “Will it survive long term? Will it damage...
The Confederation of African Football (CAF) says it will accelerate the payment of final tranche of financial rewards to participating clubs in its interclub competitions for the 2019/20 season. The continental football governing body, in a statement on Saturday, said this was in light of growing concerns and evolving nature of COVID-19 pandemic, leading to the suspension of football activities across the continent. The statement quoted CAF President, Ahmad Ahmad, as saying that the distribution,...
