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ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE MAY BE DISRUPTED SOON

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Concerns are growing over whether English football’s top flight can complete the season on schedule after Aston Villa became the fourth Premier League club to suffer a coronavirus outbreak on Thursday (Jan 7).

The Birmingham-based club were forced to cancel training and close their training ground after two rounds of testing returned multiple positive cases of Covid-19 among players and staff.

On Tuesday, a record of 40 positive tests were detected aong Premier League players and staff in the week between Dec 28 and Jan 3. Three Premier League matches were postponed last week due to outbreaks at Fulham and Manchester City.

Britain is battling a highly infectious strain of the virus which has forced a new nationwide lockdown after cases soared to record numbers in recent days.

Despite the latest lockdown that came into force in England on Wednesday and calls from some within the game for a circuit breaker to buy time and bring infection rates down, the British government has insisted that elite sport can continue and the Premier League has so far been adamant that the season will proceed.

“With low numbers of positive tests across the overwhelming majority of clubs, the league continues to have confidence in its Covid-19 protocols, fully backed by the government, to enable fixtures to be played as scheduled,” the league said on Tuesday.

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Fixture pile-up

Fulham midfielder Kevin McDonald became one of the first dissenting voices among players for the season continuing.

“How many more outbreaks and training ground closures before football needs to stop!!!! Shambolic!! Literally treated like guinea pigs!!!” he posted on Instagram.

Due to the late end to last season, the league is less than halfway through the 2020-21 campaign. The packed fixture schedule, with domestic leagues, Cup and European competitions having to be finished before the delayed Euro 2020 starts on June 11, leaves little room for manoeuvre.

Another shutdown would likely result in a severe financial hit for the world’s richest league due to rebates in TV rights deals. The late end to last season resulted in a reported £330 million (S$593 million) of rebates to broadcasters.

On Thursday, Arsenal borrowed a short-term £120 million loan from the Bank of England to cope with the impact of the pandemic. The move comes after north London rivals Tottenham Hotspur borrowed £175 million under the same scheme in June.

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Players flouting rules

However, a number of embarrassing incidents have come to light in which prominent players have flouted coronavirus restrictions, doing little to aid English football’s case to keep going while movements in the rest of the country are highly restricted.

Tottenham trio Erik Lamela, Sergio Reguilon and Giovani Lo Celso, West Ham’s Manuel Lanzini, Manchester City left-back Benjamin Mendy, Fulham striker Aleksandar Mitrovic and Crystal Palace captain Luka Milivojevic were all pictured breaching coronavirus rules over the festive period.

Villa chief executive Christian Purslow has been among those calling for tougher sanctions for players who break the regulations and put the season at risk.

Villa captain Jack Grealish was fined two weeks’ wages by the club for a breach of the rules last year.

“There are moments when young people will stray from the rules and, whether you’re a parent or the chief executive of a football club, that’s a time when you have to be very strict and remind people of their responsibilities,” Purslow said earlier this week.

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-Reuters/AFP

Kunle Solaja is the author of landmark books on sports and journalism as well as being a multiple award-winning journalist and editor of long standing. He is easily Nigeria’s foremost soccer diarist and Africa's most capped FIFA World Cup journalist, having attended all FIFA World Cup finals from Italia ’90 to Qatar 2022. He was honoured at the Qatar 2022 World Cup by FIFA and AIPS.

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Governing Bodies

IOC is in ‘best of hands’, says Bach as he hands over to Coventry

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International Olympic Committee President Kirsty Coventry receives the ceremonial key from outgoing IOC President Thomas Bach during the handover ceremony. AFP

Kirsty Coventry became the president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the most powerful person in sport, on Monday in a handover ceremony with her predecessor Thomas Bach.

The Zimbabwean is the first woman and African to head the body, and at 41, the youngest since Baron Pierre de Coubertin, who is credited with founding the modern-day Olympics.

Coventry accepted the Olympic key from Bach, who, like her, is an Olympic champion — he won a team fencing gold in 1976 and she earned two swimming golds in 2004 and 2008.

Stepping down after a turbulent 12-year tenure, Bach expressed his confidence that the Olympic movement was “in the best of hands” and Coventry would bring “conviction, integrity and a dynamic perspective” to the role.

Coventry, who swept to a crushing first-round victory in the election in Greece in March, leans heavily on her family.

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Aside from her parents, who were present at the ceremony in Lausanne, there is her husband Tyrone Seward, who was effectively her campaign manager, and two daughters, six-year-old Ella, who Bach addresses as “princess”, and Lily, just seven months old.

“Ella saw this spider web in the garden and I pointed out how it is made, and how strong and resilient it is to bad weather and little critters,” said Coventry, who takes over officially at midnight Swiss time Monday (2200 GMT).

“But if one little bit breaks it becomes weaker. That spider web is our movement, it is complex, beautiful and strong but it only works if we remain together and united.”

‘Pure passion’

Coventry said she could not believe how her life had evolved since she first dreamt of Olympic glory in 1992.

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“How lucky are we creating a platform for generations to come to reach their dreams,” she said to a packed audience in a marquee in the Olympic House garden, which comprised IOC members, including those she defeated, and dignitaries.

“It is amazing and incredible, indeed I cannot believe that from my dream in 1992 of going to an Olympic Games and winning a medal I would be standing here with you to make dreams for more young children round the world.”

Coventry, who served in the Zimbabwean government as sports and arts Minister from 2019 to this year, said the Olympic movement was much more than a “multi-sport event platform.”

“We (IOC members) are guardians of this movement, which is also about inspiring and changing lives and bringing hope,” she said.

“These things are not to be taken lightly and I will be working with each and every one of you to continue to change lives and be a beacon of hope in a divided world.

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“I am really honoured to walk this journey with you.”

Bach, who during his tenure had to grapple with Russian doping and their invasions of the Crimea and Ukraine as well as the Covid pandemic, said he was standing down filled with “gratitude, joy and confidence” in his successor.

“With her election it sends out a powerful message, that the IOC continues to evolve,” said the 71-year-old German, who was named honorary lifetime president in Greece in March.

“It has its first female and African to hold this position, and the youngest president since Pierre de Coubertin. She represents the truly global and youthful spirit of our community.”

Bach, who choked back tears at one point during his valedictory speech, was praised to the rafters by Coventry, who was widely seen as his preferred candidate of the seven vying for his post.

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After a warm embrace, she credited him with teaching her to “listen to people and to respect them,” and praised him for leading the movement with “pure passion and purpose.”

“You have kept us united through the most turbulent times.

“You left us with many legacies and hope, thank you from the bottom of my heart for leading us with passion and never wavering from our values.”

-AFP

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Governing Bodies

New IOC head Coventry already counting down to LA 2028

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Kirsty Coventry takes over as the new International Olympic Committee President - IOC headquarters, Lausanne, Switzerland - June 23, 2025 New IOC president Kirsty Coventry during the ceremony REUTERS/Pierre Albouy

Former Zimbabwean swimmer Kirsty Coventry took over the leadership of the International Olympic Committee from Thomas Bach in a ceremony on Monday with the 2028 Los Angeles Games already threatening to fill her in-tray to overflowing.

Coventry, who starts her eight-year spell officially on Tuesday as the most powerful sports administrator in the world, became the first woman and first African to be elected head of the Olympic ruling body in March.

Much of the discussion during campaigning focused on the IOC’s need for change in its marketing strategies with several top Olympic sponsors having left in the past 12 months.

However, with Los Angeles hit by protests against immigration raids, and relations tense between state and city officials, and the U.S. government, the 2028 Games have become the major talking point in the movement that would ordinarily be focusing on next year’s Milano-Cortina Winter Games.

Coventry has long-standing ties with the United States, dating back to her time as a leading swimmer at Auburn University in Alabama. That will prove useful ahead of LA 2028, and she has said she will seek to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump to discuss the Games.

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Coventry will also need to find time to help secure the long-term finances of the movement. The IOC, which generates billions of dollars in revenues each year in sponsorship and broadcasting deals for the Olympics, has secured $7.3 billion for 2025-28 and $6.2 billion for 2029-2032. More contracts are expected for both periods.

COMMERCIAL OPPORTUNITIES

Coventry is also expected to continue the IOC’s plans to expand commercial opportunities for sponsors at the Olympics with the organisation’s finances in a robust state and the privately-funded LA Olympics a good place to start.

Coventry needed only one round of voting to clinch the race to succeed Bach, beating six other candidates, making history for the African continent, with the IOC having been ruled for 131 years by European or North American men.

Her background and being the first female president will be assets in a diverse IOC membership and the international makeup of Olympic stakeholders.

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On Monday she was handed the golden key to the IOC by Bach, who was the organisation’s president for 12 years.

“I am really honoured I get to walk this journey with you. I cannot wait for anything that lies ahead,” Coventry said in her address to IOC members and other Olympic stakeholders.

“I know I have the best team to support me and our movement over the next eight years.”

Coventry will hold a two-day workshop this week to get feedback from members on key IOC issues.

“Working together and consistently finding ways to strengthen and keep united our movement that will ensure that we wake up daily… to continue to inspire,” she said.

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A seven-time Olympic medallist, Coventry won 200m backstroke gold at the 2004 Athens Games and in Beijing four years later.

“With her election, you have also sent a powerful message to the world: the IOC continues to evolve,” Bach said in his speech. “With Kirsty Coventry, the Olympic movement will be in the best of hands.”

-Reuters

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Governing Bodies

Accidental double-touch penalties must be retaken if scored, says IFAB

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Champions League - Round of 16 - Second Leg - Atletico Madrid v Real Madrid - Metropolitano, Madrid, Spain - March 12, 2025 Atletico Madrid's Julian Alvarez scores a penalty during the penalty shootout wich is later disallowed after a VAR review for a double touch. REUTERS/Susana Vera/File Photo

Penalties scored when a player accidentally touches the ball twice must be retaken, world soccer’s lawmaking body IFAB has said after Atletico Madrid’s Julian Alvarez had his spot kick disallowed in a Champions League last-16 match.

During a tense shootout with Real Madrid in March, Argentine forward Alvarez slipped and the VAR spotted that his left foot touched the ball slightly before he kicked it with his right.

Although Alvarez converted the penalty, the goal was chalked off and Atletico went on to lose the shootout and were eliminated from the Champions League.

European soccer’s governing body UEFA said the correct decision was made under the current laws but IFAB (International Football Association Board) has said that in such cases the penalty must be retaken.

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Atletico Madrid v Real Valladolid – Metropolitano, Madrid, Spain – April 14, 2025 Atletico Madrid’s Julian Alvarez scores their first goal from the penalty spot REUTERS/Susana Vera/File Photo

“(When) the penalty taker accidentally kicks the ball with both feet simultaneously or the ball touches their non-kicking foot or leg immediately after the kick: if the kick is successful, it is retaken,” IFAB said in a circular.

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“If the kick is unsuccessful, an indirect free kick is awarded (unless the referee plays advantage when it clearly benefits the defending team). In the case of penalties (penalty shootout), the kick is recorded as missed.”

The decision to disallow Alvarez’s penalty left Atletico boss Diego Simeone livid and the club’s fans outraged.

IFAB added that if the penalty taker deliberately kicks the ball with both feet or deliberately touches it a second time, an indirect free kick is awarded or, in the case of shootouts, it is recorded as missed.

The new procedures are effective for competitions starting on or after July 1, but IFAB said it may be used in competitions that start this month.

-Reuters

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