Business

For those who thought that marble racing, cherry pit spitting and the Stupid Robot Fighting League represented the future of sports, I regret to inform you that they’ve now each had their respective moments to shine and failed miserably.

The outbreak of COVID-19 has reshaped our lives now and forever, but there’s just no point in hoping that an android with a vacuum cleaner chassis for a body and plastic skateboard deck for a fist can ever captivate in the ways that Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo could.

Without knowing how this’ll all play out, it’s tough to speculate or predict much with regards to the 2020 summer transfer window. UEFA insists that the 2019-20 season must be completed, but we have no clear idea as to when that’ll happen with European football still suspended.

U.S. prosecutors on Monday announced new criminal charges against two former executives of 21st Century Fox Inc and others stemming from a long-running investigation of corruption surrounding FIFA, soccer's world governing body.

The former Fox executives, Hernan Lopez and Carlos Martinez, were indicted in Brooklyn federal court on wire fraud and money laundering along with Gerard Romy, former co-CEO of Spanish media company Imagina Media Audiovisual SL, and Full Play Group SA, a Uruguayan sports marketing company. Lawyers for the defendants could not immediately be identified. 

The Serie A season could be extended to September or October, the head of the Italian FA (FIGC) said on Sunday, warning that there could be an "avalanche of litigation" if it was not settled on the field. 

Serie A has been suspended since March 9 because of the coronavirus pandemic which has claimed 15,887 lives in Italy, almost a quarter of the global death total. Several club presidents have suggested that the season should be called off. 

Two amateur Swedish soccer clubs felt forced to cancel a friendly and then play the game in secret due to fears of match-fixing after almost 150 bookmakers worldwide offered odds on the game in the absence of other live sport, the newspaper Sportbladet reported. 

European football, currently at a standstill because of the coronavirus, is focusing on a restart in July and August with clubs and leagues being told that stopping competitions should "really be the last resort." 

When North American sports leagues return to action after the coronavirus crisis, questions are sure to linger over whether the fans will be willing, or have the resources, to pack stadiums as they once did, sports analysts have said. 

Barcelona players will make an extra contribution on top of the 70% pay cut they have agreed to take during the enforced LaLiga break so that the club's other employees can earn their full salaries during the coronavirus crisis, captain Lionel Messi said. 

The club's all-time top scorer was among many Barcelona players who released identical statements on social media on Monday to confirm the decision. 

Italy's sports minister said he will propose extending the ban on all competitions to the whole of April in an effort to contain the coronavirus. The death toll from the coronavirus rose past 10,000 in Italy on Saturday, a figure that made an extension of a national lockdown almost certain. 

"Re-starting matches ... is unrealistic. Tomorrow I will propose to extend the ban on all sports competitions, of all levels and types, to the whole of April," Vincenzo Spadafora told daily La Repubblica in an interview. 

Current contracts for players and coaches should be extended until the end of the delayed domestic soccer seasons, according to an internal FIFA document presented to its Coronavirus Working Group. The confidential document, seen by Reuters, also recommends allowing transfer windows to be changed in accordance with new season dates and urges clubs and players to work together to find solutions to salary payments during stoppages.