MLS

With around one-third of the Major League Soccer season already postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic, teams apparently are looking for salary relief. ESPN reported Monday that MLS formally proposed to the MLS Players Association that all players take a 20-percent pay cut. 

With MLS players starting to return to their teams' respective training facilities, the league is considering a resumption of the season in June or July, with the possibility of all games in Orlando at the outset, the Washington Post reported.

According to the report, all initial games would be played without fans due to the coronavirus pandemic. In addition to the Orlando idea, a two-city plan also is a possibility.

Looking back, it doesn’t feel like willful ignorance so much as a conditioned belief in the unstoppable machinations of American life. The stories from Northern Italy painted a more dramatic and horrific picture than the morbid curiosity we’d afforded Wuhan, but even as the coronavirus infiltrated America and began to make its presence felt in New York City and Seattle, the existential threat to our day-to-day life, especially here in Middle America, remained non-existent. 

Sebastian Giovinco was the best thing to ever happen to Toronto FC. After eight years of fruitless existence in MLS, the Italian’s arrival heralded the beginning of a golden era for the club, culminating in a 2017 MLS Cup and Supporters’ Shield double and a heartbreaking shootout defeat to Chivas in the CONCACAF Champions League final.

ROME — FIFA vice-president Victor Montagliani has said that moving the European soccer season to the calendar year is a "possibility to be discussed" in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic which has brought football to a standstill around the world.

In an interview with Italy's Radio Sportiva, Montagliani, who is seen as a close ally of FIFA president Gianni Infantino, said the move would fit in with the 2022 World Cup being played in Qatar in November and December.

Players will be able to use outdoor team training fields for solo workouts from next Wednesday, Major League Soccer said on Friday as the sport takes its first steps towards a return to action following the shutdown forced by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Like most North American sport, MLS shuttered operations mid-March and a league wide moratorium on group and team training remains in place through May 15.

Players will not be allowed access to club facilities, including locker rooms, gyms or training rooms.

FIFA has proposed that teams should be allowed to make up to five substitutions per match, instead of the usual three, as a temporary measure to help cope with potential fixture congestion in the aftermath of the novel coronavirus outbreak. 

Football has been at a standstill since mid-March but many leagues and federations are still hoping to complete the season but to do so they would have to cram fixtures into a shorter period than usual once play re-starts.