SOCCER
England restart doubted
Football Association chairman Greg Clarke has reportedly told the Premier League that he does not believe the domestic soccer season will be completed because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Premier League on Friday suspended all fixtures at an emergency meeting. “It was unanimously decided to suspend the Premier League with the intention of returning on 4 April, subject to medical advice and conditions at the time,” the Premier League said in a statement. Clarke said at the meeting that he did not think it was feasible for the season to be completed, the Times reported. The virus is not expected to peak in Britain for many weeks, raising doubts over a restart early next month. The Times said it is understood that Brighton & Hove Albion chief executive Paul Barber also questioned the brevity of the suspension. Premier League chief executive Richard Masters is reported to have said it would at least allow time to consider the potential consequences and debate the possible solutions. The decision was taken after Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta and Chelsea winger Callum Hudson-Odoi tested positive for COVID-19. Arteta welcomed the move to put the season on hold. “Feeling better already,” he tweeted. “We’re all facing a huge & unprecedented challenge.Everyone’s health is all that matters right now.”
GYMNASTICS
Biles snaps at birthday tweet
Four-time Olympic gold medalist Simone Biles wants more than good wishes from USA Gymnastics. The US federation wished Biles a happy 23rd birthday on social media on Saturday. Biles used the tweet to demand an independent investigation into the Larry Nassar sex abuse scandal. “How about you amaze me and do the right thing ... have an independent investigation,” Biles wrote on Twitter after the federation’s birthday tweet. “HAPPY BIRTHDAY to the most decorated gymnast of all time, @simonebiles!” USA Gymnastics wrote, posting a video of Biles in action in a floor exercise. “We know you will only continue to amaze us and make history!” Former national gymnastics team doctor Nassar was jailed for life for abusing more than 250 athletes, including stars of the US’ 2012 and 2016 gold medal-winning Olympic teams. A US Senate investigation found that “multiple institutions” failed to adequately respond to credible allegations against Nassar, but Biles has said that USA Gymnastics and the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee still owe his victims, including herself, more answers and a framework to ensure such abuses would not occur again. “Wish they BOTH wanted an independent investigation as much as the survivors & I do,” she tweeted earlier this month.
MOTORSPORT
Ogier wins shortened rally
Sebastien Ogier won the Rally Mexico for a sixth time yesterday after the world championship event was cut short due to changing travel restrictions resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. The decision to end the rally after Saturday’s second leg was to allow teams and officials time to travel home to Europe from Mexico. “A victory is a victory of course, but this one feels different from any other,” said six times world champion Ogier, who had led the Leon-based event since Friday and whose win was the Frenchman’s first with Toyota.
Shohei Ohtani and Clayton Kershaw on Friday joined their Los Angeles Dodgers teammates in sticking their fists out to show off their glittering World Series rings at a ceremony. “There’s just a lot of excitement, probably more than I can ever recall with the Dodger fan base and our players,” manager Dave Roberts said before Los Angeles rallied to beat the Detroit Tigers 8-5 in 10 innings. “What a way to cap off the first two days of celebrations,” Roberts said afterward. “By far the best opening week I’ve ever experienced. I just couldn’t have scripted it any better.” A choir in the
The famously raucous Hong Kong Sevens are to start today in a big test for a shiny new stadium at the heart of a major US$3.85 billion sports park in the territory. Officials are keeping their fingers crossed that the premier event in Hong Kong’s sporting and social calendar goes off without a hitch at the 50,000-seat Kai Tak Stadium. They hope to entice major European soccer teams to visit in the next few months, with reports in December last year saying that Liverpool were in talks about a pre-season tour. Coldplay are to perform there next month, all part of Hong Kong’s
After fleeing Sudan when civil war erupted, Al-Hilal captain Mohamed Abdelrahman and his teammates have defied the odds to reach the CAF Champions League quarter-finals. They are today to face title-holders Al-Ahly of Egypt in Cairo, with the return match in the Mauritanian capital, Nouakchott, on Tuesday next week. Al-Hilal and biggest domestic rivals Al-Merrikh relocated to Mauritania after a power struggle broke out in April 2023 between the Sudanese army and a paramilitary force. The civil war has claimed tens of thousands of lives and displaced more than 12 million people, according to the UN. The Democratic Republic of the Congo-born Al-Hilal
Shohei Ohtani, Teoscar Hernandez and Tommy Edman on Thursday smashed home runs to give the reigning World Series champions the Los Angeles Dodgers a 5-4 victory over Detroit on the MLB’s opening day in the US. The Dodgers, who won two season-opening games in Tokyo last week, raised their championship banner on a day when 28 clubs launched the season in the US. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts shuffled his batting lineup with all four leadoff hitters finally healthy as Ohtani was followed by Mookie Betts, then Hernandez and Freddie Freeman in the cleanup spot, switching places with Hernandez. “There’s a Teoscar tax to
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