Established 1961 19 Thursday, May 7, 2020 Sports For Rennes coach, Champions League dream is not quite how he imagined it Rennes had never before finished in the top three RENNES: Long one of the great underachievers in “We are not there yet, but if we are fortunate French football, Rennes are now looking forward to enough to make it we know full well that it is another the Champions League thanks to the sterling work dimension. The level is extremely high and you need of young coach Julien Stephan, but the coronavirus experience and maturity to handle it. It is another crisis could make it harder to compete at Europe’s world,” Stephan said. top table. The club from Brittany are owned by luxury goods ECONOMIC CRISIS mogul Francois Pinault, one of France’s richest men, Nevertheless, Rennes have shown under Stephan yet they had never qualified for the Champions that they can compete with some of Europe’s biggest League before. Stephan has changed that, leading sides. He was appointed in late 2018 and last season Rennes to third in Ligue 1 before the season was sus- took the team to the Europa League last 16, beating pended in mid-March with 10 games remaining be- Arsenal 3-1 at Roazhon Park before losing the return cause of the pandemic. in London. Last week’s decision by Rennes then stunned the French league to declare PSG on penalties in the the season over was there- French Cup final to win fore good news for Rennes, their first silverware in al- given only the top three in Wisest most 50 years, and now Ligue 1 qualify for the they have Champions Champions League. decision League football on the “In the context it seems horizon. like the wisest decision. And However, before they in our case we still played get that far, they may need three-quarters of the season to ward off the predators Coach Julien Stephan (left) instructing his player during the match. and I think we deserved to circling around their bril- be third,” Stephan said in an interview with AFP. liant 17-year-old midfielder Eduardo Camavinga. He Rennes had never before finished in the top three and has been heavily linked with Real Madrid. for the club,” admitted Stephan, whose father Guy In the meantime, Stephan is waiting to see when Stephan, 39, admits his team “overperformed”. The situation is further complicated by the eco- is assistant to France coach Didier Deschamps. “At games can resume, and when fans will be allowed It is still unclear how and when this season will fin- nomic crisis affecting football because of the the moment we are having to build with a Europa back into stadiums. “We are going through a difficult ish in the rest of Europe, never mind when next sea- virus-induced suspension — the French league is League budget rather than a Champions League period which will have considerable economic and son will start. When it does, Rennes will need to come asking for a 225 million-euro ($246m) govern- budget. social consequences,” he said. “Our job normally is through two qualifying rounds to join fellow French ment-guaranteed loan to help clubs compensate “The difficult thing will be strengthening the squad to provide a spectacle, give people pleasure and put sides Paris Saint-Germain and Marseille in the Cham- for lost television income. while also living within our means. The objective re- a smile on their faces. I think that is going to become pions League group stage. “We will need to see what the consequences are ally is to try to keep the core of the team together.” even more important.” — AFP England’s Morgan goes to bat for T10 format at Olympics UK sports LONDON: England’s World Cup win- a Commonwealth Games is the fact that ning captain Eoin Morgan says you can play a whole tournament in the leaders outline cricket’s 10-overs format would be space of 10 days,” he said in a video ideal for a global multi-sport event conference. ‘catastrophic’ such as the Olympics as the entire “To have a tournament in such a tournament could be squeezed into 10 short space of time maximises the op- coronavirus impact days. portunity and the exposure that it will Cricket featured at the 1900 have for the sport. Olympics and was played in the 1998 “When you can play a cricket tour- LONDON: Rugby Football Union (RFU) Commonwealth Games but has largely nament in eight-10 days it really does chief executive Bill Sweeney warned of the been absent from multi-sport events, make it appealing, and on top of that it “catastrophic” impact coronavirus could have which some say has restricted its really would be extremely entertain- on the sport if the professional game cannot growth beyond the traditional pockets. ing,” said the 33-year-old, who cap- return in the next year. The 2022 Commonwealth Games in tains Delhi Bulls in the Abu Dhabi T10 Eoin Morgan Sweeney revealed England’s RFU, which Birmingham will feature a women’s league. has already lost £15 million ($19 million) due Twenty20 competition but Morgan Twenty20 has emerged as cricket’s IPL’s Kolkata franchise, said T10 has “But if you look at a T10 game, the to the crisis, will lose a total of £107 million if says the T10 format would be a better most popular format, having spawned its own merits. earlier overs are the most important. You the autumn internationals are cancelled. The fit than T20, 50 overs or test cricket. several franchise-based leagues “The most important part of a T20 need to make the most of that very short prospect of also having to postpone or play “The one thing that T10 offers around the world including the lucra- game is always overs 10 to 20,” said powerplay, so who you put in those key next year’s Six Nations Championship behind above the three formats that makes it tive Indian Premier League (IPL). Morgan, who also captains Delhi Bulls positions and in the form that they’re in, closed doors is even more stark. so appealing to an Olympic Games or But Morgan, who plays for the in the Abu Dhabi T10 competition. is the most critical factor.” — Reuters “Eighty-five percent of our revenues come from hosting men’s internationals at Twicken- ham,” Sweeney told a meeting of the UK’s with their union to “nut out” details on pay before any Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) FFA to complete training resumed. committee on Tuesday. “The boys aren’t coming back to train on Job- Gobert, Mitchell “If this was to be prolonged and go into the Keeper,” he said. “Those discussions have to be had summer of next year and the Six Nations A-League season as a matter of urgency, so there’s clarity from players’ ready to bury games were impacted then it would be a cat- mindset and there’s clarity for clubs in financial man- astrophic impact on rugby union in England. by end of August agement of what the cost is going to be. “If we get into a situation where we are talking “Because at the moment there’s no revenues and hatchet: Lindsey about Six Nations matches next February/March being impacted then there is we don’t know what the cost base looks like to finish Utah Jazz chief Dennis Lindsey LOS ANGELES: a limit to what we can do independently. We SYDNEY: Football Federation Australia wants to re- off the season.” Social distancing measures have said Tuesday that Rudy Gobert and Donovan would have to be coming to government for sume the 2019-2020 A-League season towards the managed to slow the spread of COVID-19 in Australia Mitchell are ready to bury the hatchet following the some kind of support.” end of July and complete it before the end of August, to only a trickle of new cases each day and restric- feud triggered by their positive tests for COVID-19. English Football League (EFL) chairman Adelaide United’s director of football Bruce Djite said tions look set to be eased nationwide over the next Gobert and Mitchell, two pillars of the Utah fran- Rick Parry and England and Wales Cricket yesterday. week or two. Some will remain, however, and one chise, did not speak to each other for around one Board (ECB) chief executive Tom Harrison The A-League was brought to a halt in March be- proposal being considered to complete the A-League month after Gobert tested positive for the coron- also spelled out the gravity of the financial cri- cause of the coronavirus outbreak with five rounds season is gathering the teams into a central hub in avirus on March 11, triggering the suspension of the sis facing their sports to politicians. of the regular season and the championship playoffs Sydney and playing all the remaining matches behind NBA season. The ECB’s controversial new Hundred left to play. “My understanding is they want the sea- closed doors there. French star Gobert had attracted widespread crit- competition has been delayed until 2021 and son completed by the end of August,” Djite told re- “As a club we are happy to do that, and the players icism for his conduct in the days before his positive even if Test matches can go ahead later in the porters in Adelaide yesterday. “So mathematically, are happy to do that, we just want to finish the sea- test, which included theatrically touching multiple summer, they are likely to be behind closed three games a week and all the rest you could knock son,” said Djite. “People are more comfortable now recording devices and microphones during a press doors. “We anticipate with no cricket this year it out in four or five weeks. Then you work back from with jumping on a plane to New South Wales.” Ade- briefing. a worst-case scenario could be as bad as that and say you need at least four, five weeks train- laide United will need a new manager before any ac- Gobert later apologized for what he described as £380 million,” said Harrison on the loss of rev- ing, so you’re looking at late June, early July. tion resumes after Gertjan Verbeek headed back home his “embarrassing, inexcusable” behavior, saying he enue faced by the ECB. “That would be the “But there’s a lot of water to go under the bridge to the Netherlands in April before resigning last week. had not taken the threat of the virus seriously. loss of 800 days of cricket across all of our before that ... There’s still a lot of unknowns.” With the The club’s last four managers have been Euro- Mitchell, who tested positive after Gobert, later professional clubs and the ECB. That is the players laid off and mostly surviving on the govern- peans but Djite said they would be looking closer to spoke of a need for individuals to “educate them- worst-case scenario for us this year.” ment’s JobKeeper coronavirus wage subsidy pro- home for Verbeek’s replacement. “We want an Aus- selves” and “behave responsibly.” gramme, Djite said the FFA would need to sit down tralian coach for next season,” he said. — Reuters The comments hinted at a deep rift between the ‘FINANCIAL HOLE’ two team-mates. England were due to host the West Indies Mitchell subsequently admitted it had taken him a “I think everyone is really excited about that. and Pakistan in Test matches this summer. while to “cool off” following the incident. Hopefully it’s the first step to a bigger opening as However, the West Indies series has already MLS players to However Gobert and Mitchell were ready to settle well.” Seattle Sounders midfielder Cristian Roldan been delayed with professional cricket post- their differences, Utah executive vice president of said he looks forward to returning to the complex for poned until at least July. basketball Lindsey said Tuesday. return to team training, noting players will need time to restore “Hopefully we will be able to play a signifi- “They’re ready to put this behind them, move for- match fitness before MLS games can resume. cant number of Test matches this summer ward, act professionally,” Lindsey told media on a “I’m hearing that we’ll probably have about three which will help us mitigate those financial training facilities video conference call. weeks to a month to prepare for the season,” Roldan losses that we are facing at the moment,” “We look forward to moving forward. They’ve said in an MLS website post. “I think that’s fair. We added Harrison. The prospects for football said their piece to each other. They’ve both visited at NEW YORK: Major League Soccer players will re- understand it takes a lot to get your body back into a clubs below the Premier League are also dire the ownership level, at management level, at the turn to team training facilities for individual outdoor 90-minute rhythm.” MLS guidelines for the workouts with lower leagues much more dependent on coaches level, at the players level with each other. workouts starting today in areas where governments include temperature checks for players on arrival, gate receipts than the top tier. Premier League “[Mitchell and Gobert] will speak for themselves have eased coronavirus pandemic precautions to hand washing and disinfectant stations and desig- clubs are hoping to forge ahead with their going forward. But, at the most basic level, they know allow such practices. nated parking spots to maximize distancing. “Project Restart” with the aim of salvaging they need each other to complete their goal of being The voluntary sessions are a small first step toward “I do think it’ll be some on-the-ball stuff, allowing £762 million in television deals for the remain- the last team standing in the NBA.” a resumption of play for the 26-team North American the players to get some touches in,” Real Salt Lake der of this season alone. Lindsey meanwhile said Utah had taken positives league, which shut down March 12 after two weeks of general manager Elliot Fall said. By contrast, Parry believes it would cost out of the fact that Gobert’s infection had been dis- regular-season matches. MLS has banned full team “But at the end of the day, the players, they can’t clubs in his organisation to put games on be- covered relatively early. training through May 15, with no more than four play- be playing balls to each other, so it’s going to have to hind closed doors. “We are heading for a finan- “It’s woken me up a few times thinking what might ers at a time on a field during the solo workouts and be stuff they can do on their own.” Even solo practice cial hole of about £200 million by the end of have happened if we were to have that test come no passing between players allowed. sessions will help players by returning to familiar set- September,” said Parry. “We have a great deal back a little bit later and the players were already “Even if it’s individual and we’re not training with tings. “I think there’s a real benefit to getting players of uncertainty around next season of course, playing the game,” Lindsey said. each other, I think we’re all itching just to get back on back to the facility in any capacity, because I think, the great undetermined matter being when “As tough as it was for us to have Rudy be the first, the field and be training in some capacity with the like all of us, we’re all looking for some level of nor- we’re going to return to play in front of crowds, I think it saved infections. Not to be melodramatic, ball,” Houston Dynamo goalkeeper Michael Nelson malcy and life to get back to some semblance of what which for the EFL is absolutely critical.” — AFP but I think it saved lives.” — AFP said in a posting on the team website. our reality used to be,” Fall said. — AFP