Europe

MOSCOW — Russia's Sports Minister said on Friday he welcomed a decision by the authorities to allow spectators into stadiums when matches in the country's top professional soccer league resume next month.

The Russian Premier League halted matches in mid-March because of the COVID-19 crisis and is set to resume action on June 21.

"It's important that the soccer championship resumes in the presence of spectators, even though small in number," Russian news agencies quoted Sports Minister Oleg Matytsin as saying.

Roger Federer is the world's highest-paid athlete for 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic knocked soccer's Lionel Messi off top spot, according to the annual Forbes list released on Friday.

The Swiss tennis great, owner of a men's record 20 Grand Slam singles titles, earned $106.3 million in the last 12 months, including $100 million via endorsements, to move up four places and become the first player from his sport to top the list.

MADRID — Spanish soccer's top-flight will resume after a three-month pause due to the coronavirus pandemic on June 11 with the local derby between Sevilla and Real Betis, the government's department for sport (CSD) said in a statement on Friday.

Meanwhile, president Javier Tebas has outlined LaLiga's plans to offer viewers the chance to hear virtual crowd noise during the matches, which will be played without supporters to prevent further spread of the virus.

European football will continue its cautious return to play following the COVID-19 stoppage over the next week as a number of the continent's smaller leagues restart with some novelties and one team in serious trouble for breaking coronavirus rules. 

Portugal, Denmark, Poland, Serbia, Austria, Croatia and Ukraine are among countries which will again be able to enjoy league football, albeit in unusual circumstances with no spectators allowed at games. They join Hungary, Czech Republic, Estonia and the Faroe Islands where play has already restarted. 

The Austrian Bundesliga could be set for a massive shakeup at the top of the table without a ball having been kicked in months. 

Two weeks after 11 of the league's 12 teams accused Valérien Ismaël's side of disregarding rules restricting the size of training groups, LASK have been hit with a six-point deduction. The rules had been set in place by the country's Ministry of Sports as a result of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. 

Italy's top-flight Serie A soccer league has been given the go-ahead to restart on June 20 following the novel coronavirus stoppage, sports minister Vincenzo Spadafora said on Thursday. He added that there was a possibility the resumption of the season, which was suspended on March 9, could be preceded by Italian Cup matches one week earlier. 

"Italy is starting up again and it's only right that football can also get going," he told reporters after a conference call with representatives from the Italian Football Federation (FIGC). 

Early Thursday morning, it was confirmed that the Premier League would resume play on Wednesday, June 17. We now have more information regarding the Premier League TV schedule USA for June, and we’re in for a madcap finish to the 2019-20 season: quadruple-headers every Saturday and Sunday with additional matches being played on Friday, Monday and during the midweek.

A crucial game beckons in the 2. Bundesliga's race for promotion as second-place Hamburg takes on third-place Stuttgart on Thursday at 2:30 p.m. EST. 

Dieter Hecking's Hamburg holds a one-point lead over New Jersey native Pellegrino Matarazzo's Stuttgart in the second and final automatic-promotion spot. Neither side has been in great form of late; stretching back to before the pandemic-enforced shutdown, Hamburg has just one win in six games while Stuttgart is on a winless run of four games. 

Fortuna Dusseldorf boosted their hopes of avoiding relegation from the Bundesliga as goals from Rouwen Hennings and Kenan Karaman helped them come from behind to beat Schalke 04 2-1 at home in a scrappy contest on Wednesday. 

The result left Fortuna 16th, the relegation playoff spot, on 27 points from 28 games, one behind Mainz who stayed in the safety zone with a 1-1 draw at Union Berlin. 

Schalke, who extended their winless league run to 10 matches, stayed ninth on 37 points. 

To maintain any chance of catching Bayern Munich and winning the Bundesliga title, third-place Leipzig needed to defeat 11th-place Hertha Berlin on Wednesday at Red Bull Arena. 

Things started out poorly with Hertha’s Marko Grujić, on loan from Liverpool, opening the scoring in the ninth minute. However, Leipzig responded in the first half through Lukas Klostermann before the home side had Marcel Halstenberg sent off for a second yellow card in the 63rd minute.