US OPEN VENUE TO BE USED AS HOSPITAL

NEW YORK: The site of the US Open tennis tournament here will be used to build a 350-bed facility in an effort to provide additional medical infrastructure to the city as it battles the growing Covid-19 outbreak. A report in The Wall Street Journal said that New York city’s emergency management office plans to build a 350-bed facility at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing MeadowsCorona Park. The report said construction could begin as early as Tuesday at an indoor training centre at the facility, which has multiple courts and wide spaces, according to a spokesman for the US Tennis Association. The beds will likely be for patients who do not have Covid-19. Additionally, the tennis centre’s Louis Armstrong Stadium will become a commissary that will package 25,000 meals per day for medical professionals and others. As public and private hospitals across the state come under immense strain from the growing Covid-19 cases, officials are permitting setting up of temporary medical infrastructure at various sprawling spaces in New York.

French football stares at financial black hole

PARIS: The financial crisis facing football as a result of the coronavirus pandemic has been laid bare in France, where a decision to withhold payments due as part of a broadcast deal for Ligue 1 matches is set to leave clubs reeling. Canal Plus, the pay TV giant and long-time broadcaster of France’s top flight, stated its intention to hold back a scheduled $121 million payment in a letter to the French league revealed by the country’s leading sports daily, L’equipe. The money is in theory due this weekend and is the equivalent of 15% of the total broadcast money for the season in Ligue 1. “In case of force majeure, when matches are no longer played, then payments are suspended,” a senior management figure at Canal Plus said.

Lancashire chairman David Hodgkiss dies

LONDON: Lancashire cricket club chairman David Hodgkiss died after contracting Covid-19. He was 71. Hodgkiss, who had been on the board at Emirate Old Trafford for 22 years, is understood to have had underlying health issues, reports Espncricinfo. He had first joined in 1998 and took over as chairman in April 2017 from Michael Cairns. He also served in the roles of honorary treasurer and vice-chairman during his association.