Major League Soccer hopes to have all 26 teams begin training by June 1 in Florida ahead of an official tournament later in the month, ESPN's Jeff Carlisle reported on Wednesday. The proposal would need to be approved by MLS' Player Association.
Italy's Serie A clubs voted in a favor of restarting the season on June 13 during a general assembly on Wednesday, if the government allows.
The Italian top flight has been suspended since March 9 because of the COVID-19 pandemic and, although the government has authorized teams to hold collective training sessions from next Monday, it has not yet decided if and when the championship can resume.
London mayor Sadiq Khan is opposed to the idea of the Premier League resuming in the capital next month while the COVID-19 pandemic continues to cause hundreds of deaths in the UK each day, a spokesperson for the mayor's office has said.
The possibility of a restart next month was given a boost when the government said elite sport could return behind closed doors after June 1.
After months without it, it’s only natural to look at this weekend’s upcoming Bundesliga fixture list and lose your shit. The Revierderby between Schalke and Borussia Dortmund?! Cinderella side Union Berlin hosting mighty Bayern Munich?! It doesn’t get any better than this . . . until you remember it kind of does.
Professional soccer leagues around Europe are gearing up for a return to action following the novel coronavirus stoppage, but some are more advanced than others. Here is a roundup of the state of play.
GERMANY
The National Football League has time on its side as the sports world prepares to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic and will use some it to observe German soccer's Bundesliga as a potential blueprint on how to deal with the outbreak.
Ligue 1 had a difficult time remaining relevant even before the season was canceled and PSG was awarded the title for the seventh time in the last eight years. France’s top flight is often considered the weakest of the big five leagues in Europe or left out all-together.
Ajax is not immune to the financial strain caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, but the club will not be strong-armed into cut-price deals for their players in the upcoming transfer window, chief executive Edwin van der Sar said.
The Dutch club has built a reputation as the "talent factory" of European football over the last two decades and earned about $161.7 million last summer as Frenkie de Jong and Matthijs de Ligt secured high-profile moves to Barcelona and Juventus, respectively.
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.
The world is slowly returning to normalcy as businesses begin to reopen and football is sprouting again.
The Bundesliga aims to return May 16, and South Korea's K League will stream its opening match with English commentary on May 8. There will finally be games to watch on the weekend again.