Belgian league agrees to declare season finished due to coronavirus pandemic

Paris (AFP) – The Belgian football league has recommended that the current season be declared finished early due to the coronavirus pandemic with the present table accepted as final, it said on Thursday, becoming the first European league to take such a measure.

The decision is set to be formally validated at a General Assembly on April 15, meaning that Club Brugge would be declared champions as they currently sit 15 points clear of Gent at the top of the table.

In a statement, the league said it was “very unlikely” to be able to hold matches in front of crowds before June 30 and that it had “unanimously decided that it was not desirable…to continue the competition” after that date.

Matches behind closed doors were “theoretically possible”, but the league said it preferred not to put more pressure on health services and police in the circumstances. It therefore agreed not to restart the season and “accept the current league table as final”.

Belgium would become the first European league to take such a measure due to the ongoing health crisis, which saw football across the continent grind to a complete halt in the middle of March.

The number of deaths attributed to coronavirus in Belgium passed the 1,000 mark on Thursday, health officials said, with 15,348 officially recorded cases.

The country has imposed a similar national lockdown to those in its European neighbours, with restaurants, bars and non-essential firms shut, school suspended and public events banned. Per capita Belgium is among the worst hit countries in Europe.

The Belgian season stopped with one round of games remaining in the 30-match regular season.

After that the league usually splits up, with the top six having their points totals halved and going on to play each other home and away to decide the title winners.

The move is seemingly out of line with European football’s governing body UEFA, who have stated a determination to press on and finish this season’s domestic and club competitions by June 30, but could opt to continue into July and August if necessary.

One of the main concerns for clubs everywhere is that many players’ contracts expire on June 30, and it is not yet clear if it will be possible to extend those if the season is not completed by that date.

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Coronavirus crisis to end ‘unhealthy’ spending in football – Rummenigge

Berlin (AFP) – The crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic will stop the “unhealthy” inflation of player wages and transfer fees in football, Bayern Munich chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge wrote in an editorial published on Thursday.

“With every crisis comes an opportunity,” Rummenigge noted in Bayern’s own club magazine. “For a long time we have seen unhealthy amounts of money paid in wages and transfer fees. The coronavirus and the crisis it is causing will at least put an end to this idea of ‘always more, everything more expensive and quicker than before’.”

He added: “Supply and demand will regulate the market and help establish a new equilibrium”.

With the German season being halted on March 13, Bayern players have agreed to take a pay cut, as have players at other clubs in the Bundesliga.

The reigning German champions are one of the world’s richest clubs although they have been reluctant to splash out on the kind of transfer fees paid by other top sides in Europe.

Their record transfer fee is the 80 million euros ($87.3m) spent on France defender Lucas Hernandez from Atletico Madrid last year, some way short of the world record 222 million euros paid by Paris Saint-Germain to Barcelona for Neymar in 2017.

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Donations show ‘togetherness’ against virus, says Rashford

London (AFP) – The public response in donating to charity to help feed deprived children after an appeal by Marcus Rashford has impressed the Manchester United forward.

The 22-year-old England international teamed up with FareShare, a food distribution charity,  after schools in the Manchester area were closed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Donations as of Wednesday totalled £134,000 ($167,000) surpassing his initial target of £100,000.

The latter amount — which Rashford said was a “massive figure” — would feed around 400,000 children.

FareShare distributes food to 10,943 charities including schools, community centres and breakfast clubs.

Rashford wanted to ensure children now restricted to their homes have access to the free meals they would have received at school.

“The number of people not being fed is ridiculous,” he told The Times.

“It was close to one million children (924,325) who were helped every week by FareShare.

“The donations coming in so quickly showed the togetherness of people.”

Rashford, whose own donation is the largest the charity received in a year, has been researching the logistics of distributing food by reading business books.  

“Getting the meals together is one thing, but distribution is just as important as otherwise it is impossible to get the food out to people,” he said.

As well as his charity work, Rashford is  spending time on more relaxed pursuits such as judging a poetry competition and learning sign language.

He has also engaged in a debate on social media with England football legend Gary Lineker over who is the most graceful player of all time.

Lineker chose Frenchman Zinedine Zidane. Rashford, who until a back injury in January had been a shining light for United in the club’s topsy turvy season scoring 19 times in 31 appearances, opted for Diego Maradona.

The Argentinian might not be music to Lineker’s ears as he was in the England team who lost 2-1 in the 1986 World Cup quarter-final remembered for Maradona’s ‘Hand of God’ goal.

Maradona did, though, add a second sublime individual goal.

“The stuff he (Maradona) used to do on the pitch in that era, it was really only him doing it… Maradona’s mind was so advanced for his time, and his creativity.”

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Spurs’ Son set for military training during virus shutdown: report

Seoul (AFP) – Tottenham Hotspur’s South Korean striker Son Heung-min will report to a marines boot camp later this month to fulfil military service duties, a report said Thursday.

All able-bodied South Korean men are obliged to serve in the military for nearly two years, making up the bulk of Seoul’s 600,000-strong forces — who face off against North Korea’s army of 1.3 million.

But Son was spared a career-threatening stint as a conscript when South Korea took gold at the 2018 Asian Games in Indonesia, earning the team an exemption.

The Spurs star broke down in tears of joy after the 2-1 extra-time win over Japan, which meant he could fulfil his obligations with just three weeks’ basic training and around 500 hours of community service. 

The 27-year-old’s Premier League season ended even before the coronavirus outbreak spread to Europe when he broke his arm against Aston Villa on February 16, and Spurs said he returned to South Korea for “personal reasons”.

Son will report to a marines boot camp on the island of Jeju on April 20 for his basic training, an industry source told the South’s Yonhap news agency. 

He posted images online Wednesday of himself exercising on what appeared to be a large balcony, skipping and stretching.

The Premier League is postponed until at least April 30 because of the pandemic and is likely to be delayed even longer when the English game’s stakeholders meet on Friday.

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Asian Cup 2027 hosting deadline extended over virus

Hong Kong (AFP) – The Asian Football Confederation extended the deadline for preliminary bids for the 2027 Asian Cup on Thursday after the coronavirus pandemic caused major problems for football administrations.

Expressions of interest will now be accepted until June 30, three months after the original deadline of March 31, the AFC said in a statement.

“The decision was taken in light of the current COVID-19 pandemic to allow member associations, many of whom have been affected by the global outbreak, sufficient time to meet their internal processes and timelines,” it said.

China will host the next Asian Cup in 2023 but Saudi Arabia, which has a growing portfolio of large-scale sports events, is the only country so far to throw its hat in the ring for 2027.

Qualifying for the 2023 Asian Cup, like most other football worldwide, has been put on hold as countries batten down to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus.

Qatar, hosts of the next World Cup in 2022, won the 2019 Asian Cup where the tournament expanded from 16 to 24 teams.

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Coronavirus pause could force global football to change

Paris (AFP) – Football has ground to a halt due to the coronavirus pandemic, and the immediate concern is the simple survival of many clubs because of the financial impact, but there is hope that the global game could ultimately emerge better from this crisis.

“We are living through something none of us were used to and which will change us profoundly,” Everton manager Carlo Ancelotti told Corriere dello Sport.

Not since World War II has the sport been forced to stop across Europe. The sudden interruption has exposed the deficiencies of a system intoxicated by huge sums of money.

Cutbacks are inevitable in the short term. 

“TV money will go down, players and coaches will earn less. Tickets will cost less because people will have less money. The economy will be different and so will football. Maybe it will be better,” said Ancelotti.

“As with most things, crisis is an opportunity,” football historian and academic David Goldblatt, author of recent book The Age of Football, told AFP, before sounding a warning.

– Fairer distribution of money? –

“It could actually get worse. For there to be real change there has to be a change in the way power and ownership is distributed in the game.”

At the moment the financial power belongs to the lucky few at the top, but even they are being hurt. That is likely to affect the transfer market, and huge spending sprees on players could become a thing of the past.

“In two or three years, it will not be possible to spend the sums we have been seeing because every country will be affected. In all likelihood a new footballing world will emerge from this,” insisted former Bayern Munich president Uli Hoeness.

Already players at Barcelona — the richest club in the world — have agreed a 70 percent pay cut. Clubs across Europe are taking similar measures.

It is evidence that clubs, even in the elite, have been living on the edge, and it raises the question of whether salary caps could finally be seen as a way forward, despite the difficulties presented by EU rules.

In Germany, the Bundesliga’s four Champions League representatives this season have pledged 20 million euros ($22 million) to help crisis-hit clubs in an encouraging sign of solidarity.

Meanwhile, lessons may also be learned about how TV revenue is distributed in future.

– Fewer games –

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FIFA 20 Career Mode is driving hardcore gamers away due to bugs

As video game systems have progressed and technology continues to advance, many people assume that the games will continue to improve. Unfortunately, that’s not the case when it comes to sports video games.

The career mode is my favorite feature in the FIFA video game series. It allows players to either compete as a manager or a footballer at a club for up to 15 seasons. There shouldn’t be a time limit to be honest. What if I want a coaching career that spans more than three decades such as Sir Alex Ferguson or Arsene Wenger? Or a playing career that lasts more than two decades such as Pele, Xavi and Andrea Pirlo? So far, only PC gamers can bypass this by using a live editor.

A big faction in the FIFA gaming community are career mode lovers like me. Prior to the release of FIFA 20, EA Sports mentioned that they were adding new additions in the manager section of career mode such as press conferences, player conversations, the ability to customize your own avatar with their appearance and gender, and a new dynamic player potential system, among other things. All these features have been the Football Manager series for a long time, but it’s nice that EA Sports were finally adding them to their game. When FIFA 20 was released, the game came with a lot of errors and glitches. If you participated in a preseason tournament for the remainder of your career mode, your opponent would never play their strongest starting 11. This led to Chelsea and Liverpool being relegated in my Arsenal career mode. An NBA superstar even complained about the game on social media.

“Can we update the rosters? Can we make sure big teams are not relegated or playing their sixth team? Update CL (Champions League), and EL (Europa League), groups? I only play career mode so let’s make me happy, thanks,” said Philadelphia 76ers three-time All-Star center Joel Embiid on Instagram.

After a few patches, EA Sports got rid of some of the glitches, but more always arose. Also, whenever a patch was created, a gamer would have to start a new career mode to be able to utilize the updates. There’s so many glitches and problems in the game that I’ll just focus on a few. In the player career mode, the AI would play strikers in the defensive midfield position and you could complete accomplishments and gain attributes, but it would not appear on your profile.

In the manager career mode, footballers recently signed would just stand on the pitch and not move, footballers that are suspended due to too many yellow cards or a red card will still ask to play. Footballers that play in your last match will say they don’t play enough. In press conferences, interviewers will ask about your form being bad even if you’re on a 10-match unbeaten streak. Interviewers will say you had a boring match even if the score was 4-3. During the starting 11 presentations, instead of showing the name of players, it says undefined. To win your league, you need at least 100 points. The ultimate difficulty makes the AI unstoppable and so much more.

The game has been out for six months now, and the complaints and glitches persist even with a countless number of patches. On March 13, Embiid this time went to Twitter to air his grievances.

“CM (career mode) is all I play. For the last two months, y’all had me thinking that I’m not that good anymore when in fact the new ULTIMATE DIFFICULTY is a little EXAGGERATED so can we give attention to CM instead of FUT (FIFA Ultimate Team)? Even if we have to pay? Just a little harder than the old one. Career mode is basically my life and it has so potential, so many ideas to make it fun. Might be too late, but FIFA 21 is approaching. It’s been a while since we made adjustments so let’s do it. BUT FIRST, can we fix the problems now? Lol.”

Microtransactions made sports video games such as FIFA, Madden and NBA 2K worse. Instead of focusing on modes that will give the games variety and longevity, developers mostly use their resources on a mode that forces gamers to spend money to try to get better players and assets for their teams. Unlike Madden and NBA 2K, FIFA has a legitimate competitor in Pro Evolution Soccer (aka PES). Unfortunately, because EA has the licensing rights to most of the major clubs and leagues in the world, most people — myself included — don’t give PES a chance.

Maybe this will be the year that I give PES a try because FIFA is now becoming unbearable. Especially if you only play career mode.

 

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