Tokyo Oly head ‘expects’ call from IOC’s Bach on new date

Visa extends athlete sponsorship to 2021 after Games delay ‘Restarting league on May 3 unrealistic’

TOKYO, March 30, (AP): Tokyo Olympic President Yoshiro Mori said Monday he expects to talk with IOC President Thomas Bach this week about potential dates and other details for the rescheduled games next year.

The International Olympic Committee and Japanese organizers last week postponed the Olympics until 2021 because of the coronavirus pandemic.

“I anticipate speaking to President Bach this week,” Mori said, speaking at the opening of an organizing committee executive board meeting. “He tends to call me directly, and

Tokyo 2020 Organizing Committee CEO Toshiro Muto attends a news conference after a Tokyo 2020 Executive Board Meeting in Tokyo, March 30. Tokyo Olympic President Yoshiro Mori said Monday he expects to talk with IOC President Thomas Bach this week about potential dates and other details for the rescheduled Games next year. Both Mori and Muto said the the cost of rescheduling will be ‘massive’ - local reports suggest several billion dollars - with most of the expenses borne by Japanese taxpayers. (AP)

athletes are demanding it, and any reorganization revolves around a firm time slot.

Both Mori and CEO Toshiro Muto have said the the cost of rescheduling will be “massive” – local reports suggest several billion dollars – with most of the expenses borne by Japanese taxpayers.

Visa has told its global roster of Olympic and Paralympic hopefuls their sponsorships will be extended into 2021 after the Tokyo Games were postponed, providing some financial certainty amid the disruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

The credit card giant’s Team Visa scheme features 96 athletes across 27 sports, including soccer star Megan Rapinoe, gymnast Simone Biles – a quadruple gold medalist at the Rio de Janeiro Games – and two-time defending 800-meter Olympic champion David Rudisha.

The athletes were contacted on Friday to be given the option of

extending their sponsorship terms with Visa. It is the first clear commitment by a major sponsor to extend such sponsorship support after the unprecedented delay to the Olympics by a year was announced last week by the IOC.

“We elected to stand behind our roster of Team Visa athletes and make sure they knew affirmatively we were planning to do so and that we were going to offer to extend our relationship with them into 2021,” Chris Curtin, Visa’s chief brand and innovation marketing officer, told The Associated Press.

“They’re all dealing with how do they maintain their training schedules, discipline and focus at the same time they’re dealing with what’s happening with their families and their loved ones. One thing that we wanted to do as Visa was to take one potential point of ambiguity and maybe concern off their plates, because there should be none.”

While a spring date for the rescheduled Olympics had been suggested, the signs are now pointing to the IOC using the same slot in 2021 as planned this year when the Summer Games should have started on July 24 in Tokyo.

“I’m crossing fingers for all sorts of reasons, well beyond just the games coming back, that it reflects a reinvigorated marketplace and a reinvigorated sense of humanity and a renewed kind of enthusiasm about life,” Curtin said. “We have always been very bullish that this is going to be a special and and really important Olympics. But because of COVID-19 I think that’s now ramped up 10 times.”

Visa had already filmed some promotional campaigns with athletes for the Tokyo Games that will require some reworking. More immediately, they have spent this weekend filming their own messages promoting hand washing and social distancing that will be published over the next week.

“These are unprecedented times for all of us,” said Adam Peaty, the British swimmer who won 100-meter breaststroke gold four years ago in Rio, “but having Visa’s support makes these times of adversity quite a bit easier.”

For most people, the new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia and death.

The new coronavirus has caused a global pandemic that has infected more than 680,000 worldwide and killed in excess of 32,000, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

MILAN, March 30, (AP): Italy’s sports minister is planning to extend the ban on games and competitions in the country through all of April.

The current nationwide lockdown is due to expire on Friday but Italian health experts have said the need to try to contain COVID-19 will likely last weeks beyond that.

Minister Vincenzo Spadafora tells Italian daily La Repubblica that talks about restarting the Serie A soccer league on May 3 are “unrealistic.”

He adds: “(On Monday) I will propose extending the ban on sports competitions at every level for all of April.

And I’ll extend the measure to training - an area where we hadn’t intervened because there was still a possibility of holding the Olympics.”

Some clubs like Lazio and Napoli had been pushing to restart training as soon as this week.

At least 15 Serie A players have tested positive for COVID19.

Overall, Italy has nearly 100,000 positive cases and days ago surpassed the total in China, where the outbreak began in late 2019.

Spadafora says he’s hoping Serie A officials show “a serious desire to change.

The big clubs live in a bubble, beyond their means, starting with the millionaire wages of the players.

They need to understand that nothing will be like before anymore after this crisis.”

To that end, on Saturday Cristiano Ronaldo and his Juventus teammates along with coach Maurizio Sarri agreed to forgo 90 million euros ($100 million) in wages to help the club during the crisis.

Spadafora also says that he will allocate 400 million euros ($450 million) for recovery efforts at amateur sports associations.

In this Wednesday, Dec 11, 2019 filer, Juventus team players pose prior to the start of the Champions League Group D soccer match between Bayer Leverkusen and Juventus at the BayArena in Leverkusen, Germany. Cristiano Ronaldo and his Juventus teammates, combined with coach Maurizio Sarri, have agreed to forgo 90 million euros ($100 million) in wages if the Serie A season does not resume due to the coronavirus outbreak, the club announced Saturday. The new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms for most people, but for some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness

or death. (AP)