26th to 31st May
Football returned to Europe last weekend with the resumption of the Bundesliga, Germany's professional football competition. As for the rest of the world, the J.League (Japan's professional league) had already started a week earlier. Football appears to have taken the lead among sports, although in all fairness, some involve a lot more contact or logistical hurdles. Rugby Union, Rugby League, and American Football to name a few, will most likely only take to the playing fields in August. National competitions will feature first, but what hinders any international competition, is travel. Until air travel resumes and figures suggest we are winning the war against this pandemic, it is nearly impossible to host a world or regional championship. Many sports have already cancelled their entire season for 2020, especially those who feature mostly during the northern hemisphere summer. Others have cancelled all events for June and are planning for a more condensed season starting in July/August. One such sport is motor sport. Liberty Media are the owners of Formula One and an earlier report this week suggests their advanced planning is for an eight-race European start to the season. The first race is scheduled for the 5th July, but no official announcements have been made yet.
Staying with football and UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin has confirmed the plans are to complete the current season in August, but conceded that next year's European Championship may be scaled back. Last Monday we had the start of the Red Bull Streetstyle Online Freestyle Football World Championship 2020. The International Cricket Council has also announced, in light of the current situation, a player cannot use saliva anymore to shine a cricket ball. However, sweat is permitted. Players shine one half of the ball on their clothing. As the other half picks up more scuff marks from the bowling surface, it creates a swing movement in the air for the bowler as the game progresses. We spoke last week about World Rugby and our skepticism of the progress the organisation really wants to make for the game worldwide. It was announced that the Six Nations unions and the powers of southern hemisphere rugby, are in discussion about agreeing to a global season. This has been on the agenda for several years now. It is also something that World Rugby should have the authority to make a decision on, but is appears not to be the case.
We will see how the story develops. In the meantime, we hope you remain healthy and stay positive about overcoming this difficult season.