Coronavirus in sport

[lanky316]

Fantastic family entertainment in the end that. I don't generally like Let's Plays or have any interest in watching streamers but the whole things was just good fun, especially the horrible behaviour with Jimmy Broadbent running the competition off the road. Even better as Mrs Lanky thought it was the actor Jim Broadbent throughout the whole thing.

[Lineker]

Canada says that they will not send a team to any Tokyo 2020 Olympics held in July.

[The Buscher]

That’s the first of many I reckon.  Japan are desperately trying to show that they can host the games without issue - they’re bringing back baseball and wrestling this month.  But I see several other countries following suit until it inevitably gets postponed to 2022.

[RazorsEdge]

The Australian Olympic Committee has told the athletes to prepare for a 2021 Olympics rather than this year.

[METALMAN]

13 hours ago, lanky316 said:

Fantastic family entertainment in the end that. I don't generally like Let's Plays or have any interest in watching streamers but the whole things was just good fun, especially the horrible behaviour with Jimmy Broadbent running the competition off the road. Even better as Mrs Lanky thought it was the actor Jim Broadbent throughout the whole thing.

Maybe they should just do wrestlemania on WWE 2k20

[The Buscher]

As far as the US goes, I don't see any sports resuming before summer at the earliest and when things do return I don't see any of the major leagues nor NCAA allowing crowds this year.

In particular watching NFL or NCAA Football without crowds would be so jarring, it would completely take away the atmosphere.  That said despite the loss in ticket sales those sports especially generate huuuuuuuuuge TV revenue so it'll likely come down to something being better than nothing.

[Gazz]

Behind closed doors games cannot go ahead in any sport, because 1. Your going to have dickheads congregate outside the stadium to show their support and 2. Those dickheads are going to be have to be managed by the police, who have more important shit to deal with.

[Szumi]

2 hours ago, Gazz said:

Behind closed doors games cannot go ahead in any sport, because 1. Your going to have dickheads congregate outside the stadium to show their support and 2. Those dickheads are going to be have to be managed by the police, who have more important shit to deal with.

The police doing that would probably be the police who would have been assigned to the stadium if the fans were there in the first place, I imagine. I get your point, but there's typically a police presence at any sporting event to begin with.

[Baddar]

Olympics postponed to 2021.

[The Buscher]

That was inevitable.  Canada backing out was sure to open the floodgates to other countries backing out too.  Postponing was the only option.

As far as not allowing empty venue sports, I get the argument but at least in the US a lot of venues are already on closed off grounds.  And for NCAA, every college campus in the country remaining closed down for all of next semester feels tough to fathom.  If they're open it's already going to become impossible to socially distance.  But who the hell knows with this thing, talking months in the future is tough when the situation changes pretty much by the hour.

Sports are unimportant in the grand scheme of things and I realize that, in no way should they be prioritized.  That said, they're also my biggest passion so the prospect of basically losing it til sometime in 2021 is a gut punch no matter how necessary it may be.

[TCO]

Stadiums in America are more likely to be gigantic compounds in the middle of nowhere, that are 90% carpark because everyone drives everywhere. European stadiums are in a lot more built up areas that are pretty hard to police gatherings. You'd hope these idiots would be smart enough to stay away but they almost certainly won't.

[Adam]

Yeah, I hate the idea of playing behind closed doors but if it's the only way to end the season properly it may have to be done. That said, how will they make sure fans don't congregate? I mean...good luck stopping Liverpool fans celebrating winning the title for the first time in 30 years. Ditto Leeds and so many other teams.

[Colly]

 

[Gazz]

Some things never change...

[Lineker]

 

[Lineker]

Quote

Current contracts for players and coaches should be extended until the end of the delayed domestic football seasons, according to an internal Fifa document presented to its Coronavirus Working Group.

The confidential document, seen by Reuters, also recommends allowing transfer windows to be changed in accordance with new season dates and urges clubs and players to work together to find solutions to salary payments during stoppages.

The document is due to be discussed by members of Fifa’s Working Group later on Thursday. No decision on the issues has yet been taken by, which set up the working group on 18 March and said in a statement that it will “assess the need for amendments or temporary dispensations to the Fifa Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players” to protect contracts for both players and clubs and adjusting player registration periods.

“This work has already started and will be conducted in consultation with all key stakeholders, including confederations, member associations, clubs, leagues and players,” Fifa added.

Most domestic and international football competitions around the world have been suspended because of the pandemic and national team tournaments such as Euro 2020 and the Copa América have been postponed.

While domestic leagues are hoping to resume when the threat from the virus has receded, concrete start dates have yet to be fixed. That leaves the issue of expiring player contracts, which are usually timed to finish at the end of a given season, as a potential headache.

The key suggestion to the working group in the document seen by Reuters is that “where an agreement is due to expire at the original end date of a season, such expiry be extended until the new end date of the season”.

The same approach would apply to deals for next season, with their start date delayed in accordance with the shifting calendar. The risk of some domestic divisions starting and finishing earlier or some national leagues having a different start date to other countries is also tackled in the document.

“In case of overlapping seasons and/or registration periods, and unless all parties agree otherwise, priority be given to the former club to complete their season with their original squad, in order to safeguard the integrity of a domestic league championship”.

Transfer payments between clubs, scheduled around league start and end dates should also be delayed until the new start date of a season or its first registration period, the document states.

The working group will also examine the issue of clubs’ responsibilities to pay their staff when leagues are suspended. The document states that clubs, players and coaches should be encouraged to work together to agree on salary reductions and deferrals.

Yet they should consider the alternative, where possible, that agreements between clubs and employees are suspended when teams are not playing or training. It is also recommended that Fifa uses its newly-created ‘Fund for Professional Players’ to help ease any difficulties that clubs are facing.

Transfer windows, fixed around the end and start of the seasons, will also need to be adjusted to fit in with altered season dates and the document suggests such changes should be allowed, so long as they do not exceed the maximum 16-week period.

[Your Mom]

She is symptom free but it got Doris Burke  

[Pooker]

New York Knicks owner James Dolan has tested positive for coronavirus.

[Lineker]

 

[Gazz]

Are the jokes about Ferrari protesting Mercedes ventilator design and Racing Point's being the Mercedes ventilator but with pink trim too obvious?