Sports Burst - LaLiga's Warning Shot
Sevilla's simpletons spark behavior warning from LaLiga as Spanish soccer walks delicate line back to June restart
By Tim Stannard/beIN SPORTS USA
LaLiga president pushes June 11 restart date with Seville city derby to kick off Spanish soccer's comeback
Every day, the world's narcissistic craze for capturing and publicizing every single mundane, banal activity they undertake has repercussions.
This weekend was a fine example with a friend and family lunch involving four Sevilla players threatening the previously optimistic chances for LaLiga to return due to the general idiocy of all involved.
Ever Banega, Lucas Ocampos, Franco Vazquez and Luuk de Jong decided to hang out on Saturday in a group that totaled 12 and with no attempt at social distancing - absolute no-no's in the city, where gatherings are restricted to ten for starters.
The fact that the footballers are engaging in a highly complex attempt to play professional soccer again is another matter.
Of course, that gathering was captured and posted to Instagram - and deleted - but the damage was done. The four were busted for stupidity on multiple levels, apologized for the aforementioned idiocy but were reportedly back in training with Sevilla on Monday.
A Harry Potter style howler of a letter was sent to all of LaLiga's clubs reporting the "incomprehensible and unacceptable" behavior of the Sevilla players and reminding them how delicately balanced the return of LaLiga still is, despite the Spanish government giving a green light to resume from June 8.
Speaking of which, LaLiga's president, Javier Tebas, did the media rounds on Sunday to declare that he was still hopeful of a start date of Thursday June 11 for LaLiga with - coincidentally - the Seville derby being the first match.
"Our idea is to be able to confirm the [dates for the] first four matchdays this [coming] week," said Tebas.
Thankfully, at least the green half of El Gran Derbi is taking quarantine seriously, as Real Betis defender and human pogo stick Marc Bartra explained to Kaylyn Kyle in the latest installment of Checking In.
Catch the full interview tonight at 6pm ET / 3pm PT our beIN SPORTS USA Facebook and YouTube pages.
The Sports Burst live show will bring you all the latest in LaLiga's return at 12PM ET / 9AM PT on our beIN SPORTS USA Facebook page and beIN XTRA channel.
The Sports Burst PM show will then wrap up the day's news at the end at 7PM ET on beIN SPORTS.
Bundesliga gets ready for possible title-decider
Two down, seven rounds to go.
The Bundesliga has its head down and is ploughing through the remaining fixtures in the German top flight's season before returning to sun loungers - spread properly apart - and watching the likes of Spain and England go through the same process.
In fact, after Wednesday, it will only be six rounds remaining with the Bundesliga kicking off a midweek round of matches with the mother of all games - Der Klassiker.
Although there are plenty of points left on the table, the clash between Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich on Tuesday is being seen as a title decider, should the Bavarians win.
A victory would put Bayern seven points from Dortmund, a very handy cushion indeed.
One of the players in the Dortmund line-up is in the news on Monday - and it isn't Erling Haaland for once.
Instead, it is flying fullback, Achraf Hakimi, who has impressed for Dortmund all season and has scored four goals and come up with 10 assists in the league.
The reason for the interest is that the Moroccan is on the books of Real Madrid until 2021 and could well be lured back to LaLiga this summer for the 21-year-old to add some competition to Dani Carvajal.
Italian government to give Thursday go-no go to Serie A
Time to check on the bureaucratic stylings in Italy as the Serie A, the Italian soccer federation and Italian government attempt with limited success to coordinate their activities.
The latest situation sees the Italian federation's health protocols for matches being passed to the government for perusal.
The omnipresent Italian sports minister, Vincenzo Spadafora, spoke on Sunday to announce that Serie A could resume on June 13 or June 20, but there was a hint of suspense in the air, just to keep everyone guessing. "On Thursday, we’ll decide if and when to resume," said Spadafora.
Thursday is also the date when a decision is set to be made on the restart for the Turkish Super Lig - exclusively on beIN SPORTS - which is planning for a June 12 kick-off.
New York state sports teams urged to get back to training
Another window on the wider return of mainstream sports in the US opened on Sunday, as Tiger Woods and co bantered their way around a Florida golf course.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo not only gave permission for professional sports teams to resume training in their facilities in the state but actively encouraged it. "We want you up. We want people to be able to watch sports," declared Cuomo, "do it. Do it!"
The Brooklyn Nets are set to follow that exhortation with voluntary practice beginning from Tuesday.
So far, the NBA, NHL, MLB and MLS are all in various stages of both brainstorming schemes to get back to playing as well as coaxing players' unions into agreeing to their plans.
These include ideas from both the NBA and MLS to relocate to Orlando and play out some kind of season in a quarantine bubble, to the MLB organization producing a 50-page book of rules and regulation for a closed door season.