Governing Bodies
ON JUNE 12, THE ENGLISH PREMIERSHIP STANDS!
The June 12 date, which many politically sensitive Nigerians are aware of, is the date that the English Premiership has penciled down for the season’s restart.
The June 12 election in 1993 is widely believed to be the most credible poll ever conducted in Nigeria, yet the results were annulled by the Military. Twenty-seven years later, the English Premiership will restart on that date as timetable for the resumption of the 2019/20 season is unfolded.
According to Daily Mail, the first Premier League fixture is likely to be on Friday, June 12.
However, some Premier League clubs are arguing that relegation should be scrapped because games must be played at neutral grounds.
Brighton chief executive Paul Barber said: ‘Playing matches in neutral venues has the potential to have a material effect on the integrity of the competition.’
Brighton were due to be at home in five of their remaining nine matches. But there is growing consensus that the usual rules will have to apply to ensure competition is meaningful.
The Mail on Sunday can reveal that initial plans for the restart centred on only four neutral grounds being used in the Midlands, but pushback from Premier League clubs meant that the league has now settled on eight to 10 grounds being used.
That is because the Government will only license a maximum of 10 grounds because of the fears of coronavirus contagion if matches were played home and away.
All games will be played behind closed doors initially.
A timetable has been proposed, though the Premier League has stressed to clubs that it will only be acted upon when the Government says it is safe.
However, the Government is keen for football to restart if it can as the economy tentatively begins to open up. The key dates pencilled in are May 11: a return to group training but with social distancing; May 25: contact training begins and June 12: Premier League matches resume.
There will be more detailed talks this week and the Professional Footballers’ Association will have to be consulted over key aspects to reassure players.
The idea of quarantining players in hotels is losing momentum.
However, there will still be a raft of medical protocols to observe before a restart and there are major problems to be resolved with players. These include all players being tested for respiratory problems and undergoing an electrocardiogram heart monitor test because it is feared the virus could damage heart muscle. It is unclear how to deal with players with asthma and diabetes.
One Football League club has five players with underlying health conditions who are at increased risk. It is unlikely they could take part in any restart and many clubs report similar problems.
All players and staff will be tested twice a week to minimise the risk. But it is impossible to eliminate all risk and explaining that to players while reassuring them that the risk can be kept within acceptable limits is key.
The Premier League have agreed to pay for all tests, which will be carried out independently, but the league will only allow that if the Government says that there is sufficient capacity for public testing. The same applies to ambulance capacity and the attendance of medics at matches.
Players already fill in a well-being app each day to record their sleep times and muscles strains. They will now have to record whether they or any member of their family has any coronavirus symptoms. If they do, they will have to be tested and not attend training.
Testing will be extended to players’ families, but that will only be allowed if there is sufficient public testing capacity. Players will have to follow strict rules at home which will mean they remain under effective lockdown even if the restrictions are eased for the general population.
If a player tests positive they will be withdrawn and isolate for seven or 14 days. Crucially, the entire squad will not have to be isolated. They will all be immediately tested and any further cases withdrawn. It has not been decided how many players testing positive would trigger a match being postponed. Physios and medics will be able to work as long as they use personal protective equipment.
A key point raised was that teams should not play in their home cities, thus discouraging crowds from gathering outside grounds.
The Premier League want both sides travelling approximately the same distance which is why many games will be in The Midlands. Molineux and the King Power Stadium are expected to be among the approved grounds.
Spacious stadiums which allow social distancing and are less prone to crowds gathering are more likely to receive a licence. Wembley is expected to host the FA Cup final and therefore may also be included as one of the neutral venues but most will be existing Premier League stadia.
Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden and the Government’s deputy chief medical officer Jonathan Van-Tam met with the medical chiefs of the Premier League, the FA, the English Cricket Board, the Rugby Football Union and the British Horseracing Authority last week to establish the medical protocols for returning to sport and another meeting is expected this week. Government sources insist that the mooted point of raising the nation’s morale with the return of sport is not part of the discussions and that sport will only resume when medical experts deem it safe.
All games will be screened live and TV companies would like matches played every day of the week. Whether the FA Cup is interspersed within those games or comes as a week-long fiesta of football at the end of the season is under debate.
Although UEFA has stated that domestic leagues are the priority, the FA Cup will finish this season if the Premier League resumes.
FA chief executive Mark Bullingham has said that the national governing body will lose more than £100m because of the coronavirus pandemic. As such, it is financially imperative that the FA Cup resumes, if permitted by the Government.
That has been central to discussions as Premier League clubs are well aware of the financial pressures the FA are under, having had Euro 2020 cancelled and all international games called off for the foreseeable future.
The FA Cup final has been pencilled in for Saturday, August 8, although a midweek date of August 5 is also under consideration. It is expected to be the final game of the season. It is unclear where the protocols and restrictions under which football will operate will leave the English Football League. Sources at the EFL insist that they await Government advice, but the official position is that they want to resume the season whenever they can, playing home and away fixtures.
Given that the Government will only license certain neutral grounds and there is the costly logistics of tens of thousands of tests, it seems unlikely that could happen in June for League One and Two teams. One EFL club owner said that the likelihood of resuming the season now was as low as five per cent, though others remain determined to try until the last possible moment.
Kirsty Coventry became the president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the most powerful person in sport, on Monday in a handover ceremony with her predecessor Thomas Bach.
The Zimbabwean is the first woman and African to head the body, and at 41, the youngest since Baron Pierre de Coubertin, who is credited with founding the modern-day Olympics.
Coventry accepted the Olympic key from Bach, who, like her, is an Olympic champion — he won a team fencing gold in 1976 and she earned two swimming golds in 2004 and 2008.
Stepping down after a turbulent 12-year tenure, Bach expressed his confidence that the Olympic movement was “in the best of hands” and Coventry would bring “conviction, integrity and a dynamic perspective” to the role.
Coventry, who swept to a crushing first-round victory in the election in Greece in March, leans heavily on her family.
Aside from her parents, who were present at the ceremony in Lausanne, there is her husband Tyrone Seward, who was effectively her campaign manager, and two daughters, six-year-old Ella, who Bach addresses as “princess”, and Lily, just seven months old.
“Ella saw this spider web in the garden and I pointed out how it is made, and how strong and resilient it is to bad weather and little critters,” said Coventry, who takes over officially at midnight Swiss time Monday (2200 GMT).
“But if one little bit breaks it becomes weaker. That spider web is our movement, it is complex, beautiful and strong but it only works if we remain together and united.”
‘Pure passion’
Coventry said she could not believe how her life had evolved since she first dreamt of Olympic glory in 1992.
“How lucky are we creating a platform for generations to come to reach their dreams,” she said to a packed audience in a marquee in the Olympic House garden, which comprised IOC members, including those she defeated, and dignitaries.
“It is amazing and incredible, indeed I cannot believe that from my dream in 1992 of going to an Olympic Games and winning a medal I would be standing here with you to make dreams for more young children round the world.”
Coventry, who served in the Zimbabwean government as sports and arts Minister from 2019 to this year, said the Olympic movement was much more than a “multi-sport event platform.”
“We (IOC members) are guardians of this movement, which is also about inspiring and changing lives and bringing hope,” she said.
“These things are not to be taken lightly and I will be working with each and every one of you to continue to change lives and be a beacon of hope in a divided world.
“I am really honoured to walk this journey with you.”
Bach, who during his tenure had to grapple with Russian doping and their invasions of the Crimea and Ukraine as well as the Covid pandemic, said he was standing down filled with “gratitude, joy and confidence” in his successor.
“With her election it sends out a powerful message, that the IOC continues to evolve,” said the 71-year-old German, who was named honorary lifetime president in Greece in March.
“It has its first female and African to hold this position, and the youngest president since Pierre de Coubertin. She represents the truly global and youthful spirit of our community.”
Bach, who choked back tears at one point during his valedictory speech, was praised to the rafters by Coventry, who was widely seen as his preferred candidate of the seven vying for his post.
After a warm embrace, she credited him with teaching her to “listen to people and to respect them,” and praised him for leading the movement with “pure passion and purpose.”
“You have kept us united through the most turbulent times.
“You left us with many legacies and hope, thank you from the bottom of my heart for leading us with passion and never wavering from our values.”
-AFP
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Former Zimbabwean swimmer Kirsty Coventry took over the leadership of the International Olympic Committee from Thomas Bach in a ceremony on Monday with the 2028 Los Angeles Games already threatening to fill her in-tray to overflowing.
Coventry, who starts her eight-year spell officially on Tuesday as the most powerful sports administrator in the world, became the first woman and first African to be elected head of the Olympic ruling body in March.
Much of the discussion during campaigning focused on the IOC’s need for change in its marketing strategies with several top Olympic sponsors having left in the past 12 months.
However, with Los Angeles hit by protests against immigration raids, and relations tense between state and city officials, and the U.S. government, the 2028 Games have become the major talking point in the movement that would ordinarily be focusing on next year’s Milano-Cortina Winter Games.
Coventry has long-standing ties with the United States, dating back to her time as a leading swimmer at Auburn University in Alabama. That will prove useful ahead of LA 2028, and she has said she will seek to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump to discuss the Games.
Coventry will also need to find time to help secure the long-term finances of the movement. The IOC, which generates billions of dollars in revenues each year in sponsorship and broadcasting deals for the Olympics, has secured $7.3 billion for 2025-28 and $6.2 billion for 2029-2032. More contracts are expected for both periods.
COMMERCIAL OPPORTUNITIES
Coventry is also expected to continue the IOC’s plans to expand commercial opportunities for sponsors at the Olympics with the organisation’s finances in a robust state and the privately-funded LA Olympics a good place to start.
Coventry needed only one round of voting to clinch the race to succeed Bach, beating six other candidates, making history for the African continent, with the IOC having been ruled for 131 years by European or North American men.
Her background and being the first female president will be assets in a diverse IOC membership and the international makeup of Olympic stakeholders.
On Monday she was handed the golden key to the IOC by Bach, who was the organisation’s president for 12 years.
“I am really honoured I get to walk this journey with you. I cannot wait for anything that lies ahead,” Coventry said in her address to IOC members and other Olympic stakeholders.
“I know I have the best team to support me and our movement over the next eight years.”
Coventry will hold a two-day workshop this week to get feedback from members on key IOC issues.
“Working together and consistently finding ways to strengthen and keep united our movement that will ensure that we wake up daily… to continue to inspire,” she said.
A seven-time Olympic medallist, Coventry won 200m backstroke gold at the 2004 Athens Games and in Beijing four years later.
“With her election, you have also sent a powerful message to the world: the IOC continues to evolve,” Bach said in his speech. “With Kirsty Coventry, the Olympic movement will be in the best of hands.”
-Reuters
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Penalties scored when a player accidentally touches the ball twice must be retaken, world soccer’s lawmaking body IFAB has said after Atletico Madrid’s Julian Alvarez had his spot kick disallowed in a Champions League last-16 match.
During a tense shootout with Real Madrid in March, Argentine forward Alvarez slipped and the VAR spotted that his left foot touched the ball slightly before he kicked it with his right.
Although Alvarez converted the penalty, the goal was chalked off and Atletico went on to lose the shootout and were eliminated from the Champions League.
European soccer’s governing body UEFA said the correct decision was made under the current laws but IFAB (International Football Association Board) has said that in such cases the penalty must be retaken.
Atletico Madrid v Real Valladolid – Metropolitano, Madrid, Spain – April 14, 2025 Atletico Madrid’s Julian Alvarez scores their first goal from the penalty spot REUTERS/Susana Vera/File Photo
“(When) the penalty taker accidentally kicks the ball with both feet simultaneously or the ball touches their non-kicking foot or leg immediately after the kick: if the kick is successful, it is retaken,” IFAB said in a circular.
“If the kick is unsuccessful, an indirect free kick is awarded (unless the referee plays advantage when it clearly benefits the defending team). In the case of penalties (penalty shootout), the kick is recorded as missed.”
The decision to disallow Alvarez’s penalty left Atletico boss Diego Simeone livid and the club’s fans outraged.
IFAB added that if the penalty taker deliberately kicks the ball with both feet or deliberately touches it a second time, an indirect free kick is awarded or, in the case of shootouts, it is recorded as missed.
The new procedures are effective for competitions starting on or after July 1, but IFAB said it may be used in competitions that start this month.
-Reuters
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