The Latest on the effects of the coronavirus outbreak on sports
around the world:
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NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman has raised the possibility of not
being able to complete the regular season, while stressing all
options remain on the table, during an interview on NBCSN.
In saying, ”nothing has been ruled in and nothing ruled out,”
Bettman noted the league requires a clearer picture on the impact
of the coronavirus pandemic, which he hopes will happen in the next
few weeks.
Bettman said the ideal scenario would be to complete the season to
determine playoff seedings in fairness to teams involved in tightly
contested races in both conferences. However, he adds: ”We
understand that may not be possible.”
The live interview broadcast Tuesday marked the first time Bettman
has mentioned the possibility of the league not being able to
complete the regular season. There were 189 games remaining when
play was postponed on March 12.
With the pandemic affecting regions of the continent at different
times, Bettman acknowledged the league’s options include the
potential of playing games at neutral sites.
Bettman can foresee games being played into the summer. He doesn’t
expect the ability to maintain NHL-caliber ice to be an issue
because of the league’s modern and air-conditioned facilities.
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Former No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki’s farewell to tennis – an
exhibition match against good friend Serena Williams – is being
postponed because of the coronavirus outbreak.
The last tournament of the 29-year-old Wozniacki’s professional
career came in January at the Australian Open. The Dane won her
Grand Slam title there in 2018.
She was supposed to face off against 23-time major champion
Williams in Copenhagen on May 18 in a match dubbed ”The Final
One.”
Wozniacki wrote Tuesday on Twitter that their exhibition will be
rescheduled because ”the safety and health of everyone is most
important.”
She added in another post that tickets already purchased ”will
still be good, once we pick a new date.”
—
FIFA has recommended that all player contracts be extended until
the soccer season is able to finish.
The world governing body also said it will allow upcoming transfer
windows to be moved to new dates because of the turmoil caused by
the coronavirus pandemic.
FIFA said it hopes the decisions will ”bring a measure of
stability and clarity” at a time when soccer worldwide is at a
near-total shutdown, with no clear timetable for games to resume.
In Europe, most player contracts expire on June 30, but FIFA said
they should be ”extended until such time that the season does
actually end.”
The governing body also said it ”will be flexible and will allow
the relevant transfer windows to be moved so they fall between the
end of the old season and the start of the new season.”
—
The Canadian Football League is the latest sports league to
postpone play because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The CFL, which was scheduled to kick off the regular season on June
11, announced Tuesday that the season won’t start before the
beginning of July.
”Like our fellow Canadians, we in the CFL are striving to meet
today’s challenges with both pragmatism and hope,” Commissioner
Randy Ambrosie said in a statement. ”We are pragmatic enough to
see our country still has sacrifice and hard work ahead of it.”
The announcement follows comments by Mayor Naheed Nenshi that
Calgary’s ban on public events until June 30 includes CFL and NHL
games, should those leagues resume before then.
Toronto Mayor John Tory announced last week that Canada’s largest
city is canceling events through June 30 that require city
permission. That ban did not extend to sporting events, although
provincial gathering bans would factor in.
”We respect the decisions being made by the federal government,
provinces and municipalities on behalf of our safety and we will
continue to follow their directives,” Ambrosie said. ”These
include indications from Canadian cities that they will not allow
sporting events to take place before the end of June.
”While it is now clear that the 2020 CFL season won’t start before
the beginning of July, we are committed to working with our teams,
the Players’ Association, (The Sports Network and its
French-language sister network) to play a full season or as close
as we can come to one. We recognize this may require some
creativity and we are preparing for multiple scenarios.”
—
Churchill Downs has delayed reopening stables at the track and
training center to April 28 and postponed its spring meet that was
scheduled to open April 25.
The track last month postponed the 146th Kentucky Derby from May 2
to Sept. 5, the first time since 1945 the race will not be run on
the first Saturday in May.
Churchill Downs’ stables have been closed since Dec. 31 for winter
renovations and were originally scheduled to open March 17 before
being delayed in response to executive orders from Gov. Andy
Beshear to contain and limit the spread of COVID-19.
Track president Kevin Flanery said in a statement that Churchill
Downs is following the lead of the governor and public health
officials and added, ”Our team will be ready to open under the
relevant guidance we are given when the time is right.”
—
Two of the biggest meetings in the British horse racing calendar
have been postponed amid the coronavirus outbreak, despite previous
hopes that the sport could return by the start of May.
The Jockey Club says the Guineas Festival at Newmarket on May 2-3
and the English Derby Festival at Epsom on June 5-6 will not be
staged on those dates.
Organizers are looking at alternative dates for the meetings
”given the importance of (them) to the careers of that generation
of horses, and the racing and bloodstock industries as a whole.”
The Derby is the most prestigious flat race in Britain, while the
1,000 and 2,000 Guineas take place at the Newmarket meeting in
early May.
The Jockey Club said a decision needed to be made on postponing the
meetings as trainers wanted to know whether to step up preparations
for the races.
Racing has officially been suspended until the end of April, and
the British Horseracing Authority was hoping for a resumption on
May 1.
—
The Italian and Catalan MotoGP races have been postponed because of
the coronavirus outbreak.
The motorcycling series has yet to start its season. Eight MotoGP
races have now been called off because of the virus.
The Italian Grand Prix was scheduled for May 31 at the Mugello
Circuit and would have been followed the next weekend by the race
at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona.
Organizers say new dates for those races ”cannot be confirmed
until it becomes clearer when exactly it will be possible to hold
the events.”
—
The president of the Spanish soccer league says he is not
contemplating returning to action before the end of May.
The country is expected to remain under lockdown until April 26.
Javier Tebas says other scenarios are also being studied. They
include having the European competitions restarting only by the end
of June and not conflicting with the domestic leagues.
Tebas says it is very likely the league will restart with games in
empty stadiums and that matches in venues with reduced capacity
will also eventually be an option.
The league president says it has been ”impossible” to reach a
deal with players on the salary reductions needed to reduce the
financial impact of the crisis but he expects the majority of the
clubs to reach agreements with players.
—
South Korea’s professional baseball league says it hopes to start
practice games between teams on April 21 before possibly opening
the season in early May.
The Korea Baseball Organization says the plans are contingent on
the country’s coronavirus caseload continuing to slow.
The KBO will advise players to wear face masks in locker rooms and
require them to download smartphone apps to report their daily
health status to league officials.
South Korea reported 47 new cases for the second consecutive day as
infections continued to wane in the worst-hit city of Daegu. Those
are the smallest daily jumps since Feb. 20. The country was
reporting about 500 new cases per day in early March.
But there’s still concern over infections linked to passengers
arriving from overseas.
The KBO announced last month that it was postponing the start of
its season but that it still hoped to maintain a 144-game
regular-season schedule. It then said it could ban spectators from
games when infection risks were high.
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More AP sports: https://apnews.com/apf-sports and
https://twitter.com/AP-Sports
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