Sports Burst - La Liga Lives
LaLiga president declares that the competition could be completed by the end of June even with May restart
By Tim Stannard
"We have to finish the competitions as they are now" mandate from European soccer
While it is completely impossible to predict when the worst wave of the coronavirus pandemic will be over to allow sports - and some semblance of normal life - to return, even conversations about that possibility passes for spiritually uplifting news in Sports Burst's world.
So, rather than kicking off with Cancellation Corner, it's a new segment: Restart Road.
And it's hello again LaLiga - the greatest soccer league of them all - with its president, Javier Tebas, reinforcing the plan that the current campaign will return, and will be completed, potentially by June 30th.
Tebas says that the overall directive from Tuesday's great soccer conference was that "we have is to finish the competitions as they are now."
LaLiga's head honcho also says this end date is possible even if the sport's return is not until mid-May. However, while Tebas has taken into account fixture congestion and scheduling, the matter of dealing with various Barcelona CRISIS! and Real Madrid CRISIS! moments in such a short space in time will be challenging.
Of course, everything will depend on the government advise at the time, says Tebas. "It they guarantee (La Liga) will be played, it will be played"
The Premier League has a video conference call on Thursday to discuss viable options for finishing the season and not giving Liverpool fans permanent psychological damage for an eternity by annulling the current campaign.
The Sports Burst live show will bring you all the latest news at 12PM ET. Head to our beIN SPORTS USA Facebook page, Youtube channel or beIN SPORTS XTRA channel to join in.
NBA mulls charity game during league suspension
The NBA is also making plans for the future although it has a tough situation in the USA, despite the fact that the most tested and screened population in the country for the coronavirus appear to be NBA players.
However, this does mean that while the league is on hiatus, some kind of charity match with fully-tested, fully-healthy players, staff and media support crew could take place in the near future.
"People are stuck at home, and I think they need a diversion. They need to be entertained," said NBA Commissioner, Adam Silver, told ESPN on Wednesday night.
One sport did actually manage to start today. Australian Rules Football - a bag of fun to watch - began its season behind closed doors on Thursday in Melbourne, Australia.
Basically, men in singlets kicking an oval ball around an enormous, oval-shaped pitch, with violence thrown in. The attitude from Australian Football League seems to be "give it a go until someone says stop." There will be no spoiler on the result of the game.
Pressure continues to build on the Olympic Committee
Tennis grownups have said that there will be no women's or men's tournaments until at least June 7th which takes out the clay court season - Rafa, we feel for you.
Formula 1 has decided to move its summer break to March / April in an attempt to create space to rescheduled postponed races. The first three were taken off the calendar and the next three in Netherlands, Spain and Monaco are expected to follow.
The Olympics is still in a holding pattern over what to do with Tokyo 2020. The head of World Athletics, Sebastian Coe, said that the current mood at the International Olympic Committee is that "nobody is saying we're going to the Games come what may."
Zlatan v coronavirus
Time for some cheerier news now and one of humanity's greatest weapons against the coronavirus has been unleashed - Zlatan.
Sport's version of Thor has set up a fundraiser to support medical staff and hospitals in Italy, a country going through truly awful times at the moment. The aim is to get fellow soccer and sports start to raise over $1 million.
"I want to give back even more to this country that I love," announced Zlatan who also issued an ominous warning to COVID-19. "If the virus don't go to Zlatan, Zlatan goes to the virus."
Zlatan - the world needs you more than ever.