The Spanish soccer season, halted like most major sporting competitions due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, is unlikely to return until the summer, the country's health minister Salvador Illa said on Sunday.
Spectators are unlikely to be able to return to football stadiums until next year at the earliest due to the continued threat of the novel coronavirus, according to Jaume Roures, the head of Spanish media company Mediapro which broadcasts LaLiga.
Roures, whose company also manages the international broadcasting rights for the Spanish top flight and broadcasts the Champions League, also predicts the end of colossal transfer fees for players due to the pandemic.
The career of a soccer player, like other athletes, can only last so long. Most players hang up their boots around their mid-30s, and while several stick around the game in some sense as a pundit or a coach, many ex-players also move on to entirely different careers. Here are five players who transitioned to new gigs after their playing days were done:
Major League Soccer (MLS) must remove caps on salaries if it is to fulfill its potential and compete with Europe's top leagues, former England captain Wayne Rooney has said.
The salary cap was introduced to help level the playing field by preventing teams from spending big on players. It has worked to an extent, with 10 different teams crowned MLS Cup champions over the last 13 seasons.
The novel coronavirus has crippled the global economy and devastated lives and families but Atlético Madrid and Spain midfielder Saúl Ñíguez believes there is a way out if people show solidarity with each other.
With football on hold during the health crisis, Saúl, 25, has launched Saldremos Juntos (“We'll get through this together”), a campaign to boost Spain's freelancers and small businesses whose livelihoods have been bludgeoned by the pause in activity.
Major League Soccer and Liga MX would benefit from joining forces into what would amount to a North American super league in the eyes of Santos Laguna and Atlas owner Alejandro Irarragorri.
Irarragorri offered a statement after Liga MX, the top soccer league in Mexico, announced it would be suspending promotion and relegation for the next five years.
The players and coaching staff at Serie A side AS Roma have agreed to go without four months' salary to help the club through the crisis caused by the COVID-19 outbreak. Serie A has been suspended since March 9 and it is not known if or when the season will be able to re-start.
Once the formalities are out of the way, the Premier League will finalize the sale of Newcastle United from owner Mike Ashley to a consortium that’s headed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF). In terms of the richest Premier League owners, Newcastle's jumping from 11th on this list all the way to the top.
There is unlikely to be any relegation from the English Premier League if the season ends with no more play possible because of the coronavirus outbreak, Brighton and Hove Albion owner Tony Bloom has told British media.
Premier League clubs met on Friday to discuss possible models for finishing the season but all options remained hypothetical after the U.K. government extended lockdown restrictions for another three weeks. Brighton were two points clear of the relegation zone with nine matches remaining when the league was brought to a halt on March 13.