World News
Coronavirus: Here’s what’s happening in the sports world on Wednesday
Stay up to date on the latest on how the coronavirus outbreak is affecting sports around the globe.(Illustration by Steve Tzemis/CBC)The latest on how the coronavirus outbreak is affecting sports around the globe: National Women’s Soccer League to resume June 27 Kontinental Hockey League plans to open 2020-21 season on Sept. 2 Premier League clubs vote for…
Stay up to date on the latest on how the coronavirus outbreak is affecting sports around the globe.
The latest on how the coronavirus outbreak is affecting sports around the globe:
- National Women's Soccer League to resume June 27
- Kontinental Hockey League plans to open 2020-21 season on Sept. 2
- Premier League clubs vote for return to contact training
- Badminton federation extends Olympic qualifying
- Spanish government considers allowing soccer fans for 2020-21
NWSL announces June 27 start with month-long tourney
Pro soccer returns to the U.S. next month when the National Women's Soccer League starts a 25-game tournament in a pair of stadiums in Utah that will be kept clear of fans to protect players from the coronavirus.
Players from the nine teams will train and live at two Salt Lake City-area hotels, the league announced Wednesday. All players will be tested for COVID-19 before leaving for Utah, and then will be regularly screened during their month-long stay.
No fans will be allowed into the Zions Bank or Rio Tinto stadiums, two suburban Salt Lake City venues that will host the action.
The tournament begins June 27, with games to be televised and streamed by CBS and its online and broadcast affiliates. It's a boon for a league that was looking for a new TV partner in the wake of the U.S. women's victory in the World Cup last year, and now finds itself on the front end of American leagues returning and offering live sports in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
KHL eyes Sept. 2 for 2020-21 season opener
The Kontinental Hockey League says it plans to return Sept. 2 to open the 2020-21 season.
The last KHL game was played on March 12. The season was then suspended because of the coronavirus pandemic as international travel restrictions became a problem for the league with teams in six countries.
Russia's KHL is widely considered to be the strongest hockey league outside the NHL. It ended its 2019-20 season part-way through the playoffs without declaring a champion.
The league says Sept. 2 is a preliminary date which could be subject to “necessary corrections” depending on how the coronavirus situation develops. It is also broadly in line with other recent KHL campaigns.
EPL teams approve contact training
The Premier League is on course to restart next month after clubs approved plans on Wednesday to resume contact training even as some players are concerned about taking to the field again during the coronavirus pandemic.
The vote by the 20 clubs came after gaining clearance from the government for players to work together as a squad as restrictions are eased across England.
For the last week, players have been working in smaller groups and avoiding contact. The next phase in training sessions still acknowledges the social distancing required in wider society.
Players and staff members at clubs are being tested twice a week for COVID-19. Bournemouth goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale and Watford defender Adrian Mariappa are the only players announced as testing positive for the disease in last week's tests.
The last game was played on March 9 before the competition was suspended.
Germany's top division restarted on May 16 and Spain has government approval for games after June 8. England is hoping to resume in the second half in June.
Badminton federation extends Olympic qualifying period
Shuttlers will keep ranking points they earned during the original Olympic qualification period before the novel coronavirus pandemic forced the Tokyo Games to be postponed, the Badminton World Federation said Wednesday.
The All England Open, played from March 11-15, was the final event to count towards Olympic qualification before the circuit closed down due to the spread of the virus.
Rankings at the end of April should have been the cut off to decide which badminton players will be at the Tokyo Games.
The governing body said an extended Olympic qualification period will be introduced in 2021 and will include only those tournaments that were postponed, cancelled or suspended due to the pandemic this year.
The BWF announced a new 2020 tournaments calendar last week with the World Tour set to return with the Taipei Open from Sept. 1-6. Tourneys rescheduled for later in 2020 will not count towards qualification and only the 2021 editions of each tournament will offer points towards the Race to Tokyo ranking list.
Spanish government considers return of soccer fans for 2020-21
Spain's top sports government official says fans may be back in soccer stadiums beginning next season.
Irene Lozano, president of the Spanish Sports Council, believes that conditions could be in place by the fall to allow fans back, with some restrictions.
“Depending on how the epidemic progresses and how the situation progresses, we can start looking into putting a certain number of fans into the stadiums next season,” she said in an interview with radio network COPE late Tuesday.
The Spanish league is expected to resume, without fans, on the second weekend of June, nearly three months after it was suspended because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Lozano said she expects only parts of stadiums to be filled at first, with social distancing guidelines and protective materials such as gloves and masks likely still required.
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