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The Latest on the effects of the coronavirus outbreak on sports around the world:
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Browns coach Kevin Stefanski can finally call Cleveland home.
After delaying his family’s move from Minnesota because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Stefanski, his wife and his young kids made the trip to Ohio over the weekend.
“We did an 11-hour drive on Friday and powered through that,” I’ve told ESPN’s Scott Van Pelt late Monday night. “I was proud of myself. It was interesting. The license plate game is hard right now because there’s not a lot of cars on the road. But the kids were pretty good. Thank God for the iPads, and now happy to be in Cleveland. ”
Stefanski spent 14 seasons as an assistant with the Vikings before he was hired by the Browns in January.
During his introductory news conference, Stefanski said he knew about Cleveland’s east side-west side divide and wasn’t sure where to live. He wound up settling in a western suburb.
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FILE – In this Jan. 14, 2020, file photo, Cleveland Browns NFL Football head coach Kevin Stefanski answers a question during a news conference in Cleveland. The NFL Draft is April 23-25.
FILE – In this Jan. 14, 2020, file photo, Cleveland Browns NFL Football head coach Kevin Stefanski answers a question during a news conference in Cleveland. The NFL Draft is April 23-25.
Photo: Phil Long, AP
FILE – In this Jan. 14, 2020, file photo, Cleveland Browns NFL Football head coach Kevin Stefanski answers a question during a news conference in Cleveland. The NFL Draft is April 23-25.
FILE – In this Jan. 14, 2020, file photo, Cleveland Browns NFL Football head coach Kevin Stefanski answers a question during a news conference in Cleveland. The NFL Draft is April 23-25.
Photo: Phil Long, AP
Stefanski and his staff have been holding daily Zoom calls during the team’s offseason program, which has been forced to be virtual because of the virus. On Monday, Cleveland’s rookies joined the meetings.
Stefanski believes the sessions have worked well.
“Players, young people, are a resilient bunch, and I think they learn under these unique circumstances,” he said.
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On the day they were supposed to hold a parade to mark their 2019 WNBA championship, the Washington Mystics have revealed plans for what the team is billing as a “virtual celebration.”
The Mystics originally planned to take to the streets of the nation’s capital on Tuesday, but that was scrapped because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Also set aside was a banner-raising ceremony scheduled for the home opener against the Los Angeles Sparks on Saturday.
It’s not known when the season will begin.
So Saturday will feature online festivities.
Those will include messages from Mayor Muriel Bowser, Mystics owner Ted Leonsis and coach Mike Thibault, an appearance by player Natasha Cloud, and the first episode of a documentary about the championship run.
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Swedish soccer players will not be required to take a test for COVID-19 before practice sessions or matches.
Players will instead have to fill in a self-assessment form each morning before arriving at training or a match. The club doctor will then assess whether the player is healthy enough to take part. Players must stay at home if they have any symptoms.
The Swedish league says the principle in the country is that only people who are feeling so ill that they must visit the hospital get a ”full-scale corona test.”
The return-to-play protocols have been presented to Sweden’s public health authority. A decision is expected this week on whether the Swedish league can start next month.
Swedish society hasn’t completely shut down during the coronavirus outbreak because the government and medical authorities have chosen not to impose as many restrictions as other countries.
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The club that hosts the Wimbledon tennis tournament says it has made donations worth about $ 1.5 million to emergency services and charities amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The All England Club says it has also made contributions to a relief program to support players whose income is particularly affected by the virus outbreak.
All England Club chairman Ian Hewitt says “Wimbledon has the responsibility and the capacity to act as a force for good.”
This year’s grass-court Grand Slam event was canceled on April 1. It is the first time Wimbledon has been shelved since World War II.
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The Austrian soccer league is set to resume next month in empty stadiums following clearance from the government.
Soccer federation president Leo Windtner met with vice chancellor Werner Kogler and says the path is clear to restart. Training could resume this week.
The league is expected to set a date for games at a meeting of clubs Wednesday.
No Austrian league games have been played since early March. LASK Linz leads Salzburg by three points at the top of the standings.
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The Diamond League circuit of track meets has a new, shorter schedule from mid-August through mid-October because of the coronavirus pandemic.
World Athletics says the adapted program can “give athletes time to prepare mentally, stay motivated and adjust training for competition.”
The series is now set to start in Monaco on Aug. 14 with two more European meets scheduled for later that month. Four more European meets in September will be followed by Shanghai on Sept. 19.
The Prefontaine meet in Eugene, Oregon, is set for Oct. 4. The season-ending meet is Oct. 17 in China at a city to be decided.
World Athletics says Zurich will now have the finals in 2021 and 2022 and Eugene has agreed to push back its finals back by one year to 2023.
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London Mayor Sadiq Khan says he believes it is too early for the Premier League to be planning a resumption of the season amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Premier League clubs Arsenal, Chelsea, Crystal Palace, Tottenham and West Ham all play in the capital.
The mayor’s office says the league should summarize only “when it is safe to do so.”
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Monday that sports events in the country could resume in June if there is not a new spike in COVID-19 infections.
Liverpool led the league by 25 points with nine games remaining when the league was suspended in March.
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FIFA has rescheduled two women’s events for next year and will hold its 2020 annual meeting online.
FIFA says the Under-20 Women’s World Cup in Costa Rica and Panama will start on Jan. 20 and the Under-17 Women’s World Cup will be in India from Feb. 17.
Both 2020 tournaments were postponed in April because of the coronavirus pandemic.
FIFA says both tournaments will retain their eligibility rules. The same players can be selected even if they have a birthday early in 2021.
The FIFA Congress was due to be held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on Sept. 18 but will now be an online event.
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German soccer clubs will decide whether to adopt a rule change to increase the number of substitutions when they meet by video conference on Thursday.
The International Football Association Board agreed last week to let teams use two extra substitutes per match in 2020. That should help leagues clear a backlog of games created by the coronavirus pandemic.
Leagues can choose whether or not to adopt the rule change.
The German league is scheduled to restart on Saturday.
The German league also says it will stop publishing centralized statistics for its coronavirus testing program and will leave that up to the clubs.
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The Danish soccer league will resume on May 28 with games in empty stadiums.
The league has been suspended since March 9 because of the coronavirus outbreak.
The first game will be between AGF and Randers to complete the 24th round. The 25th round will start on May 29.
All games in the 26th and final round will be held on June 7. The playoffs will follow with the season scheduled to end on July 29.
The league says games will take place at various times during the daytime and evening “so that as many matches as possible are made available to football fans” while stadiums are closed.
FC Midtjylland leads FC Copenhagen by 12 points at the top of the standings.
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The Diamond League event in London is the latest track meet to be canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The meet had been scheduled for July 4-5 at the Olympic Stadium.
British Athletics says “the decision has been made in light of the ongoing global pandemic.”
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World Cup winner Giuseppe Bergomi says he had COVID-19.
The former Italy defender says that for 20-25 days beginning in early March his back was in so much pain that he couldn’t sit down.
He adds in an Instagram chat that he felt constantly weak.
The 56-year-old Bergomi says he has recovered.
Bergomi played for Inter Milan and is now an analyst for soccer matches on Italy’s Sky TV. He helped Italy to the 1982 World Cup title.
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The qualifying tournament for the 2021 Women’s Cricket World Cup has been postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Bangladesh, Ireland, the Netherlands, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Sri Lanka, Thailand, the United States, the West Indies and Zimbabwe were to play in the tournament in Sri Lanka from July 3-19 and three were to qualify.
The International Cricket Council has not set new dates.
The Women’s World Cup is in New Zealand in February and March.
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