‘SCRAP SEASON NOW’
certainly be in charge of a team who have pulled away from the drop zone and are eyeing a top-half finish.
The Toon are also in the last eight of the FA Cup, with a home quarter-final against holders Manchester City scheduled for later this month.
“We want to finish the season as strong as possible,” added Hayden.
“It is massive that we now have an end-game to focus on.
“Training is now building up for a purpose. We have three weeks to do a lot more contact training, more shape and team-based stuff.
“It’s more about 11 versus 11 and match-specific training rather than just individualised stuff.”
While team-mate Danny Rose has expressed reservations at football restarting with hundreds still dying every day from coronavirus, Hayden believes players are in a privileged position. He said: “Obviously, everyone has individual cases, people close to you with health issues, but, personally, you could not be in a safer environment. “There will be people out there, like builders, who are going back to work who are not being tested two or three times a week.
“And if they are doing that, there is no reason why we should not be doing our jobs.
“If we’re getting tested, I don’t see why it is an issue. “Considering what is going on around the world with all this uncertainty, to be able to do your job in a safe environment and get paid for it is a privilege.”
AS DOMESTIC behind-closed-doors action in England returns today with horse racing in Newcastle and Championship League snooker in Milton Keynes, we take a look at sport’s overall state of play in the big comeback.
ATHLETICS
THE track and field season has been very badly affected, with the Olympics postponed and the European Athletics Championships and London Anniversary Games cancelled. A revised calendar of one-day meetings is tentatively planned between August and October, including the Gateshead Diamond League (August 16) the week after the British Championships in Manchester (August 8-9). Elite athletes have returned to socially distanced one-to-one training with coaches. BOXING
ALTHOUGH elite sport has Government clearance to return to basic training, sparring has yet to be permitted by the British Boxing Board of Control and the 2020 calendar contains only hope. Promoter Eddie Hearn is planning to stage five-bout fight nights in his 15-acre Essex garden, starting as early as July 15 and culminating in a “massive tearup” between Dillian Whyte and Alexander Povetkin (below). The Matchroom boss is also looking at Anthony Joshua and Kubrat Pulev (below right) to face off in front of a small London crowd in October or November.
CRICKET
DOMESTIC cricket will not start until August 1 at the earliest. England, though, are set to begin a three-Test series against West Indies on July 8. The Tests are scheduled to be played behind closed doors in a bio-secure environment at Hampshire’s Ageas Bowl and Lancashire’s Old Trafford. But the series still has to be approved by the Government – and the West Indies squad would have to quarantine for 14 days. Options for playing first-class and limited-overs competitions later will be presented to the ECB this month.
THE Tour de France is expected to go ahead on its rescheduled dates of August 29-September 20, with the Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a Espana overlapping in October to complete a crowded period of three Grand Tours in just 72 days. Major races on world governing body UCI’s schedule are due to begin from August 1.
DARTS
Thanks to the PDC Home Tour, streamed online from players’ living rooms, live competition has been going on for six weeks already. But next month’s World Matchplay in Blackpool is in doubt and the incomplete Premier League has been rescheduled to finish in Newcastle on October 1.
THE first two Premier League matches are pencilled in for June 17 and the Championship is expected to re-start on June 20 if rubber-stamped in a meeting a week today. League One’s future will be decided at the same meeting. League Two voted on May 15 to curtail the season and the four play-off teams are preparing and getting tested ready for a final vote confirming the format. The FA Cup Final is slated for August 1 – with the quarter-finals on June 27-28 and semis on July 18-19 – with European competition, resuming after that, building to a Champions League final in Istanbul on August 29.
THE Formula One season is scheduled to get
AFTER a number of local exhibition events, the PGA Tour is due to start on June 11 in Fort Worth, Texas, without fans, while the British Masters will kick off the European version on July 22 – the start of a six-event run in this country culminating in the UK Championship at the Belfry. However, senior players such as Rory McIlroy have spoken out about postponing September’s Ryder Cup until it can be played with spectators on the course.
THE Jerez circuit will take centre stage as Moto GP and World Superbikes return. MotoGP, which saw its British GP become the fifth race in the calendar to be cancelled last week, aims to re-start on July 19 behind closed doors, which will give Spaniard Marc Marquez (above left) a chance to increase his lead in his home country. Then, between July 31 and August 2, the World Superbikes Championship, with Britain’s Alex Lowes (above right), plans to get back under way in Jerez before moving to the Algarve circuit a week later.
JAMIE MURRAY has organised the behindclosed-doors Schroders Battle of the Brits event from June 23-28 at Roehampton, with brother Andy confirmed along with Kyle Edmund and Dan Evans (below, left to right). The event marks the start of a number of weeks of LTA events designed to kick-start British tennis. Internationally, the ATP still has an unlikely July 13 return date but, without crowds, there are already doubts over the Australian Open in January.
SUPER LEAGUE clubs are working on three models to return, all starting in early August, with different finish dates in November, December and January. That will initially be behind closed doors but they hope crowds could be back in October. The Championship and League One have created working groups to decide if playing again in 2020 is financially feasible. Australia’s NRL returned at the weekend in a remodelled season that finishes with the State of Origin in November.
ENGLAND’S Premiership clubs will find out on Thursday when they can play again, but it is unlikely to be before the end of July. The plan is for them to return to Phase 1 training this week, working out in small, socially-distanced clusters. Financially stricken clubs, who will need at least six weeks to prepare for the resumption of a league which has nine rounds still to complete plus top-four playoffs, have been helped out by government decreeing players can remain on furlough up until they start playing again. The Pro14 has pencilled in an August 22 re-start date. Testplaying nations and European Cup chiefs hope to stage fixtures in September but that smacks increasingly of wishful thinking.
FROM BACK PAGE another peak in the Covid-19 pandemic – and on when to restart it. The vast majority of second-tier sides want to finish the season on the pitch with, for at least 10 clubs, promotion to the Premier League still a possibility.
But one Championship chief executive revealed: “There are two and possibly three clubs that still want the season ended. There is not unanimity about starting again.”
Hovering just two points above the drop zone, Hull want the season curtailed and Jonathan Woodgate’s (above) Middlesbrough want it ended. But a majority of 51 per cent of votes is needed to curtail the season within a division.