EPL clubs still split on neutral sites
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson says sports can resume — if only members of your own household are playing.
How the Premier League can restart should become clearer in the coming days.
Any restart during the coronavirus pandemic is not just reliant on the government, which is planning Tuesday to outline the path to group training by sports teams being allowed again.
The 20 Premier League clubs head into their latest conference call on Monday split over a plan to use neutral stadiums to complete the season that was halted in March.
As clubs try to create safe conditions for training and games, the risks of players gathering again have been underscored by a Brighton player testing positive for COVID-19 on Saturday. Brighton chief executive Paul Barber said the case was “a concern,” with players still only training individually at the south-coast club.
If games can resume as the league hopes by mid-June, there will not be any fans allowed inside stadiums, with forms of social distancing maintained even as some of the national lockdown restrictions are eased.
While making no mention of the return of professional sports in his Downing Street speech Sunday, Johnson told Britons they can “play sports but only with members of your own household.” That includes golf courses and tennis courts in England being allowed to reopen from Wednesday.
The government, however, said last week it wants to see the return of the Premier League to “lift the spirits of the nation” when it is safe.
But at least six clubs, according to Watford, are insistent on being allowed to play at home despite police saying that is not feasible.
U.S. co-captain Alex Morgan became a mom just in time for Mother’s Day. Morgan announced Saturday on social media that she gave birth to daughter Charlie Elena Carrasco at 11:30 a.m. Thursday. Charlie weighed 8 pounds, 5 ounces. “She made us wait longer than expected, but I should have known she would do it her way and her way only. My super moon baby,” Morgan wrote in an Instagram post. Morgan and husband Servando Carrasco, who’s a midfielder for the LA Galaxy, announced in October that they were expecting their first child in April. Morgan was on the U.S. team that won the World Cup last summer in France. She hopes to return to the team following her maternity leave in time for the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. Her season with the Orlando Pride in the National Women’s Soccer League was cut short last year by a knee injury. She and Carrasco met at the University of California, where both played soccer. They were married on New Year’s Eve in 2014.
NHL: The Ducks signed D Brendan Guhle to a two-year, $1.6 million contract extension and F Sam Carrick to a one-year extension worth $700,000 on Sunday. The 22-year-old Guhle has 14 points in 59 career games with the Ducks and Sabres, who traded their former second-round pick to the Ducks in February 2019 along with a firstround draft pick for D Brandon Montour. Guhle has four goals and four assists in 30 games this season. Carrick has played nine of his 34 career games for the Ducks this season, getting one goal and one assist. He’s in his first season as the captain of the Ducks’ AHL affiliate in San Diego.
Tennis: The French Open at Roland Garros could be held without fans later this year, the president of the French Tennis Federation said. The clay-court tournament at Roland Garros was initially slated to be held May24-June 7, but was postponed amid the coronavirus pandemic and rescheduled for Sept. 20- Oct. 4. Bernard Giudicelli tells French newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche that organizers are considering the prospect it might need to go ahead without fans present. It could even start one week later. “Organizing it without fans would allow a part of the economy to keep turning, (like) television rights and partnerships. It’s not to be overlooked,” Giudicelli said in the newspaper interview Sunday. “We’re not ruling any option out.” However, he conceded that “the lack of visibility” when hosting a tournament without fans is a concern. Recent reports have speculated that the French Open could be rescheduled again.