Players have accepted that playing games in closed stadiums might be the only way to complete the English domestic league season, Bobby Barnes, deputy chief executive of the Professional Footballers' Association (PFA), has said.
Australia coach Graham Arnold has called for the age limit at the Tokyo Olympics football tournament to be raised to ensure that players who helped their country qualify remain eligible if the Games are postponed to 2021. The Olympic men's tournament is largely a youth affair, with squads allowed only three players above the age of 23.
This season's Champions League, Europa League and women's Champions League finals scheduled for May have been formally postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic, European soccer's governing body UEFA said on Tuesday.
All three competitions are currently suspended along with almost every European domestic league because of the coronavirus while UEFA last week postponed the Euro 2020 tournament until next year.
Real Madrid forward Marco Asensio has missed the entire season with a serious knee injury but the time away from the pitch paid unexpected dividends when he was crowned champion of LaLiga's FIFA 20 video game tournament on Sunday.
With Spanish soccer on hold along with most live sports while the world fights the coronavirus pandemic, players traded the pitch for PlayStation in an online tournament organized by eSports commentator Ibai Llanos and endorsed by LaLiga.
Arsenal has advised its players, who were to resume training on Tuesday, to stay at home even though they completed their 14-day isolation period after manager Mikel Arteta tested positive for the coronavirus. Arteta's positive test forced the team to go into self-isolation, while the Premier League has suspended the soccer season until April 30.
The Spanish soccer calendar has been postponed until further notice, LaLiga and the Spanish soccer federation (RFEF) said in a joint statement on Monday. All organized soccer in Spain had been postponed for two weeks due to the spread of the coronavirus but was initially due to resume on April 3.
The statement said a joint commission between the two bodies had agreed to postpone all professional soccer competitions until the Spanish government considered they could start again "without creating any health risk.”
Former Manchester United midfielder Marouane Fellaini has been diagnosed with COVID-19 following his return to China, the Belgian's Chinese Super League club Shandong Luneng announced on its official website on Sunday.
Fellaini, who joined Shandong last January from the English Premier League side, returned to the country on Friday to join up with his club and tested positive for the coronavirus. The former Belgium international did not have a fever and was asymptomatic, the club said, and has now been placed in quarantine.
Julie Ertz might just be the most dominant player in soccer right now — and the most magnanimous.
The two-time Women’s World Cup winner teamed up with her husband to donate $100,000 to Philabundance, a Philadelphia-area food bank, to provide meals to those in need during the coronavirus pandemic.
Ertz and her husband, Philadelphia Eagles tight end Zach Ertz, announced the donation on Friday evening through their Ertz Family Foundation.
LONDON — Manchester United and Manchester City are the latest Premier League clubs to spring into action to help their communities during the coronavirus pandemic, joining forces to donate 100,000 pounds ($117,000) to support local food banks.
Responding to an initiative already run by fans of both clubs, City and United will donate 50,000 pounds each to the Trussell Trust, a support network of more than 1,200 food banks.
ROME — Italian soccer clubs, players and fans have banded together to raise millions of euros to support the country’s stretched health system amid the devastating coronavirus outbreak.
Thursday was one of the bleakest days in Italy’s battle against COVID-19 as the death toll rose to 3,405, overtaking China as the highest number of fatalities from the disease in one country.
A state of nationwide lockdown remains in place as the government looks to control the spread of the virus and all sports events have been suspended since March 9.