Find out the latest on COVID-19’s impact on the sports world and when sports are returning by subscribing to Breaking News push notifications in the Sports and COVID-19 section.
European leagues have until May 25 to inform UEFA of their plans to either cancel or complete their respective seasons.
The 55 federations under UEFA’s jurisdiction were informed of the deadline in a letter from the president of European soccer’s administrative body, Aleksander Ceferin.
“National Associations and/or Leagues should be in a position to communicate to UEFA by 25 May 2020 the planned restart of their domestic competitions including the date of restart and the relevant competition format,” Ceferin wrote, according to Reuters’ Simon Evans.
In the event of a league choosing to cancel a season, Ceferin said UEFA would require the appropriate bodies to explain “the special circumstances justifying such premature termination” before the nation’s qualifiers for European competitions – such as the Champions League – are submitted based on their domestic achievements.
The Netherlands’ Eredivisie was the first European soccer league to abandon its 2019-20 campaign with no promotion or relegation due to the pandemic. France’s Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 followed suit Tuesday after prime minister Edouard Philippe announced there would no sporting events in the country until September.
Xavier Laine / Getty Images Sport / Getty
Squads elsewhere in Europe are gradually reconvening at their respective training centers to prepare for a potential restart of the domestic campaign. The clubs are adhering to strict social-distancing rules and other preventative measures against the coronavirus that are unique to each country.
However, the possible return dates for each major division are, for the most part, still vague and hinge on the ever-changing status of the COVID-19 crisis and the government’s efforts to stem its spread. Germany’s Bundesliga may be the first of Europe’s top five leagues to return with a planned May 9 restart, but German Football League chief executive Christian Seifert admitted last week “it is not for us to decide when” play resumes while lockdown protocols and restrictions on public events are decided upon by the government and health authorities.
UEFA’s May 25 deadline may also help the organization find time to conclude its Champions League and Europa League terms. It’s understood UEFA wants to finish domestic seasons before playing out the rest of the continental campaign, with a tentative date for the 2019-20 Champions League final reportedly set for Aug. 29.
TAMPA, Fla. — Tom Brady’s accidental “QB sneak” that made news last week — when he entered the home of offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich’s neighbor instead of Leftwich’s house — did more than provide a few laughs around the NFL.
It led to multiple teams inquiring if the Tampa Bay Buccaneers violated the NFL’s “dead period” prior to the virtual offseason program, the league confirmed Tuesday.
The NFL investigated and determined that no violation of offseason work rules occurred.
1 Related
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, NFL players and nonessential personnel are forbidden from entering team facilities and from conducting the league’s originally scheduled offseason programs, which includes classroom instruction and conditioning. Instead, the NFL created a virtual offseason program for teams, which started Monday for teams with returning coaches.
The program is strictly virtual and consists of three weeks of classroom instruction via video conferencing. It also includes virtual workouts and non-football educational programs.
The concern among teams that reached out to the league was that in-person instruction was taking place. A source close to the situation told ESPN last week that Brady was merely coming over to retrieve a playbook, which is consistent with the league’s findings that were first reported by NFL Network.
Find out the latest on COVID-19’s impact on the sports world and when sports are returning by subscribing to Breaking News push notifications in the Sports and COVID-19 section.
French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe announced Tuesday that there will be no sporting events in the country, even behind closed doors, before September, thus ending the Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 seasons.
“The 2019-20 season, notably for football, will not be able to resume,” Philippe said.
Ligue 1 becomes the second major European league to cancel the 2019-20 campaign amid the coronavirus pandemic after the Dutch Eredivisie did so last week.
Philippe’s decision was part of an announcement outlining the schedule for the end of the six-week national lockdown to MPs in the Assemblee Nationale. Philippe also said France would scale up testing to 700,000 a week, as schools and retailers gradually reopen to prevent further economic damage.
The General Assembly of the French professional league (LFP) will meet in May to decide what Philippe’s announcement means for leaders Paris Saint-Germain, as well as relegations, promotions, and European places, according to a report from RMC Sport’s Mohamed Bouhafsi.
A decision from the LFP would be in line with UEFA’s announcement earlier Tuesday that advised its 55 member associations to submit plans for the completion of their seasons by May 25. The European governing body’s briefing leaves the selection of spots in next season’s continental competitions up to the respective leagues.
As it stands, PSG boast a 12-point lead atop the table, while second-place Marseille holds the second automatic Champions League berth. Third-place Rennes, who were enjoying a historically great season, would nab a Champions League qualifier, while Lille would automatically qualify for the Europa League, with the two other entrants in the competition pending the results of the French Cup and League Cup finals.
Should the LFP choose to mimic the Dutch league’s decision to void the campaign and not award a winner, or promotion or relegation spots, Toulouse would be offered a massive lifeline. Les Pitchouns sit bottom of Ligue 1 on 13 points with just three victories in 28 matches, a distant 14 points adrift of a relegation playoff tie with Nimes.
According to a report from RMC Sport, the final standings will be determined by three criteria: the current table, a points-per-matches played extrapolation to forecast respective point totals, and by using the table at the midway point of the campaign (Match 19).
Philippe’s decision comes days after the LFP released a statement claiming that players would return to their clubs for “full medical checkups” starting May 11 in hopes of resuming league play on June 17.
French Football Federation (FFF) president Noel Le Graet further raised hopes, proposing that the two cup finals could be contested in June prior to the resumption of the league campaign.
GREEN BAY, Wis. — The selection of Jordan Love in the 2020 NFL draft signified that the end of the Aaron Rodgers era with the Green Bay Packers might come sooner than anyone — including the two-time NFL MVP — figured. Then, when Rodgers’ team ignored the perceived receiver need in a record draft at the position, it suggested a concerted change to the offense.
These are not Rodgers’ Packers anymore.
They’re Matt LaFleur’s — at least in terms of how the second-year coach wants to play.
LaFleur watched his friend and mentor, San Francisco 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan, demolish the Packers in the NFC Championship Game with an offensive plan that featured 42 runs and just eight passes. If LaFleur needed a reminder that perhaps he strayed too far from his roots in his rookie season as head coach, that was it.
“I think Matt certainly wants to the run the ball,” Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst said following Day 2 of the draft on Friday. “I think he’s talked to you guys repeatedly about how much he’d like to run the ball and have the pass work off of that.”
A 42-8 run-pass ratio is an extreme that LaFleur isn’t likely to resort to, so long as Rodgers remains at least as effective as he was last season, with a 26-touchdown, four-interception performance in a 13-3 regular season during which nearly every possible break (from injuries to scheduling) went in his team’s favor. But anyone who listened closely to LaFleur from the day he was hired should know how much he values the run.
“I think anytime you can take as much off the quarterback as possible, that only helps them out in the long run,” LaFleur said in one of his first interviews in Green Bay.
The Packers went from leading the NFL in dropback percentage (71.5%) in 2018 to being 13th in the league (63.7%) last season in LaFleur’s first year, according to ESPN Stats & Information. From 2013 to 2018, the Packers had the league’s highest dropback rate, whereas last season, the 49ers ranked 30th, at 52.8%.
Even if the Packers believe Rodgers’ decline has begun, it’s hard to imagine them going to the 49ers’ extreme, given the still obvious ability gap between Jimmy Garoppolo and Rodgers.
Matt LaFleur wants to run the ball to take as much off Aaron Rodgers as possible, and the Packers’ draft selections reflect that commitment. Dylan Buell/Getty Images
Perhaps Gutekunst’s receiver board really didn’t fall in such a way that he could justify reaching for a receiver with his Day 2 picks at Nos. 62 and 94 (AJ Dillon, a bruising running back, and Josiah Deguara, a tight end who looks more like an H-back). Plus, without the fourth-round pick the team used to move up from 30 to 26 for Love, it might have been impossible to move up in the second or third rounds.
Or maybe Gutekunst didn’t view receiver as a major concern the way those on the outside did because he knew of LaFleur’s desire to further shift from past Packers offensive trends.
“I think it’s a little bit the way everything kind of fell early in the draft,” Gutekunst said of the receiver board. “Just didn’t work out that we weren’t able to select some of the guys that we had rated really highly. And once we got to the middle and toward the end of the draft, I just didn’t think there was great opportunity to add a player that was going to make an impact on our roster this year.”
That led Gutekunst to Boston College’s bruising, between-the-tackles running back, Dillon, in the second round and hybrid tight end/fullback Deguara of Cincinnati in the third.
“Matt really wants to tie everything to the run game and off the run game, and these guys will help us do that,” Gutekunst said.
Last season, LaFleur found a way to blend some of what Rodgers liked from former coach Mike McCarthy’s offense with his system, but it wasn’t completely LaFleur’s system.
play
0:56
Jordan Love describes his emotions one day after being taken by the Packers and what he talked about with Aaron Rodgers.
“I think as we’ve gone through a full season, we have a much better idea of who we are, of what we do well, and now it’s on us to put that plan in place,” LaFleur said after the draft. “If I look back at our Day 1 install from last season to our Day 1 install that is approaching this offseason, it’s night and day different. We have a better identity of who we are.”
Love was picked for the long term, and the same could be said about Dillon if the Packers don’t plan to re-sign Aaron Jones. Jones accounted for more than 1,500 yards from scrimmage and 19 touchdowns last season, and LaFleur will no doubt use him as much as possible again this season, therefore limiting Dillon’s role immediately. The Packers also have Jamaal Williams, who is entering the final year of his contract.
Dillon, however, gives the Packers a bruising back to complement Jones’ explosive style. The 6-foot, 247-pound Dillon showed rare athleticism for his size with a 4.53 40-yard dash and 41-inch vertical, the highest among backs who tested at the combine.
“You don’t hear those numbers come around too often,” said Packers scout Mike Owen, who covers the Northeast. “I had a chance to scout the guy for the Giants right now, Saquon [Barkley], with those kinds of numbers. Now we got AJ Dillon here with impressive numbers also. It’s just God-gifted ability that blessed them with height, weight, speed and athleticism to do that. A lot of people in America wish they had that kind of traits.”
The Packers let fullback Danny Vitale leave in free agency for the Patriots. Some envisioned Vitale filling the role that Kyle Juszczyk does for Shanahan in San Francisco, but LaFleur put him on the field for only 170 snaps in 15 games. Deguara might be a better fit for that kind of role.
“There really wasn’t a position that I didn’t play on offense,” said the 6-foot-2, 242-pound Deguara, who ran a 4.72 40. “I played a little slot receiver. I played a little in-line tight end. I was off the ball. I was in the backfield. I did a lot of different things, and I think that helped me a lot throughout this process, and I think it shows my versatility in this game.”
This might go down as one of the most unpopular drafts in recent Packers history, at least in real time. Even when Gutekunst’s predecessor and mentor, Ted Thompson, picked Rodgers in 2005, it was understandable because Rodgers was viewed as a potential No. 1 overall pick, and Favre was waffling about retirement. This time around, Gutekunst has a team that came within a game of the Super Bowl, despite the lack of weapons for Rodgers. Gutekunst added only one receiver, Devin Funchess on a prove-it ($2.5 million) deal, essentially swapping him for Geronimo Allison, who signed with the Lions.
“It’s funny the reaction, especially to the draft and free agency,” Gutekunst said. “I saw Ted for years. People were just all over him about the drafts and free agency. Really what matters to me is the team we put out there each fall and how they do. That’s what I’m most concerned with.”
