May 5 – As the country prepares to become the first of the Big Five leagues in Europe to resume playing, German football authorities say there have been 10 positive results from 1,724 tests for COVID-19 carried out among players and staff of the 36 clubs in the top two divisions.
May 5 – As English football grapples with the pros and cons of resuming the season behind closed doors, Football Association chairman Greg Clarke (pictured) fears fans will not be allowed back to games “any time soon”.
May 5 – La Liga has confirmed that Spain’s footballers will go back to training this week with a view to resuming fixtures in June.
May 5 – Israeli football will return at the start of June, the country’s sports minister Miri Regev announced on Monday. In Hungary, the domestic cup semi-finals will mark a return of the game on May 23.
May 5 – The head of the English players’ union has suggested that Premier League games might not be played over the full 90 minutes if and when the season resumes.
May 5 – Tottenham Hotspur and Wembley have both lost two NFL matches they were set to host in London this autumn with the US major league announcing it has cancelled the four regular season games and switching them back to the US.
May 5 – The National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) in the US has said that all clubs can use of outdoor team training pitches from tomorrow (May 6) as long as the follow the league’s medical task force ‘Return to Play Phased Protocol’.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 4 – The possibility of the English Premier League season resuming continues to be marred in uncertainty after clubs were told that only “approved neutral venues” will be used to host remaining fixtures.
May 4 – The German Bundesliga’s move to get its season back on track took a knock after three FC Koln players tested positive for the coronavirus, but Germany’s minister for the interior Horst Seehofer has backed the league’s return this month.
May 4 – Yet again, Belgium’s Pro League has delayed the decision to rubber-stamp Club Brugge’s coronation as champions because of the evolving lockdown measures in the country and concerns over the TV rights contract. The league’s general assembly will now meet on May 15.
May 4 – Former Liverpool manager Gerard Houllier believes his old club should be awarded the Premier League title even if the season is not completed because of the Covid-19 crisis.
May 1 – Brazil may be in meltdown following the haphazard policies and incendiary rants of its president Jair Bolsonaro in response to the coronavirus pandemic, but the CBF and the country’s clubs are seeking a structured way out of the health crisis by drawing up plans for a resumption of training.
May 1 – With clubs and leagues scrambling to keep sponsors engaged, new research from the European Sponsorship Association (ESA) finds that while sponsors are changing their approaches during lockdown, there is confidence in the long-term health of the sponsorship industry despite short term uncertainty and a root and branch disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
May 1 – Germany, ahead of the game in Europe in dealing with the spread of Covid-19, has suffered a setback in its bid to start playing matches again after the government delayed any decision over a league resumption.
May 1 – Paris St. Germain have been awarded the Ligue 1 title two days after the government ruled that the French season could not resume because of the coronavirus pandemic.