No deadline for Olympic decision
Sydney, March 16: The leader of the IOC’s coordination commission for the Tokyo Olympics said there is no May deadline to cancel the Games and he remains confident the event will go ahead despite sports coming to a virtual standstill globally amid the coronavirus outbreak.
John Coates, who will have to go into government-mandated self-isolation when he returns to Australia this week from Olympic business in Europe, told the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper: “It’s all proceeding to start on the 24th of July.”
Dick Pound, a former IOC vice president, said in an interview with The Associated Press last month that the end of May loomed as a possible deadline for the IOC to make a call on the Tokyo Olympics.
But Coates, an IOC vice president and head of the Australian Olympic Committee, told the paper in a telephone interview from Switzerland that the IOC didn’t recognize the deadline and he thought Pound had backed away from it, too.
“It’s never been the IOC’s position. It was Dick’s idea. There is four months to go,” Coates told the newspaper on Monday.
Coates was in Europe when the Australian government announced the mandatory two-week self isolation on all people arriving in the country after the weekend.
The latest restrictions, including bans on gatherings of more than 500 people, came in the wake of the cancellation of the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne over the weekend, and the suspension of sporting events and largescale gatherings in parts of the world affected by the virus outbreak.
OLYMPIC FLAME HANDOVER CEREMONY TO BE CLOSED
In Athens, The Olympic flame handover ceremony for the Tokyo Games will take place without spectators in an effort to contain the coronavirus outbreak, the Greek Olympic committee said on Monday.
The committee said the accreditation cards that had been issued for Thursday’s ceremony at the stadium in Athens where the first modern Olympics were held in 1896 would not be valid.
The committee cancelled the remainder of the Olympic torch relay last week after crowds gathered in southern Greece to watch part of the torch relay in Sparta, where the torch was carried by actor Gerard Butler.
The President of the Italian football federation (FICG), Gabriele Gravina, said that the 2019/20 Serie A campaign could be spread over two seasons in order to bring the league to a conclusion.
All sports events in Italy have been put on hold until April 3, putting the completion of the Italian football season in doubt.
At a FIGC meeting, the body confirmed that the option of holding playoffs to decide the champions and relegated teams was being considered, as well as declaring the current standings as final or not declaring a champions at all. There are currently 12 rounds of league action left to be completed.