38 Friday Sports Friday, May 8, 2020 South reboots COVID-19-hit football No talking or goal celebrations : ’s football season kicks off the past decade, winning five of the last six live action in a world where sports fans have today after a two-month coronavirus delay, league titles, and are again one of the favorites. been starved of such content by the virus, with leading the way for the global game as other Another top contender among the K-League’s broadcasters resorting to repeats of matches leagues strive to return to action. Goal celebra- 12 teams are Ulsan, who have finished in the top from past years. The lack of live sport has re- tions, handshakes and even talking are out under four in each of the past four years. sulted in a new-found global interest in South stringent new safety guidelines designed to pre- But it will be football with a difference from Korean football. Ten foreign broadcasters from vent any contagion during games, which will be Friday, with strict health checks and hygiene , Hong Kong to Croatia have purchased played behind closed doors. While countries measures enforced on the field. Players and rights to air the upcoming season, while those in such as Belarus, Turkmenistan and Taiwan defied coaching staff are subject to temperature checks Germany, France, Italy, US and Australia have the virus to keep playing football, South Korea ahead of each game and if anyone gets infected also made inquiries, the K-League said. - the 2002 World Cup co-hosts and semi-final- during the season, the affected team and those The K-League will livestream Friday’s match ists - are the first prominent nation in the sport who played against them will have to take a two- on YouTube and Twitter with English-language to allow matches. week break. Instead of the traditional pre-game graphics and commentary for international fans, South Korea endured one of the worst early handshakes, players have been asked to bow it added in a statement. On the ground, the K- outbreaks of COVID-19 outside China, prompt- their heads from a distance, while also avoiding League said spectators will be allowed back into ing professional sports to suspend or delay their celebrating goals with teammates - and talking. stadiums progressively as the government eases seasons, a pattern that was repeated worldwide. its quarantining measures. The new football sea- But the country appears to have flattened the ‘Impossible not to talk’ son comes just two days after the return of pro- curve thanks to an extensive “trace, test and The K-League’s step-by-step response man- fessional in South Korea, which has treat” program, and football’s return comes after ual to the virus outbreak has been shared with struck a television deal with ESPN for US fans. baseball started without fans on Tuesday. The K- some 40 professional football competitions And South Korea will next week become the JEJU: Tottenham Hotspur’s South Korean striker League is Asia’s first major competition to return worldwide including England’s Premier League first country to see women’s professional golf Son Heung-min (in military) uniform moves to a to action, while Europe’s giants remain sidelined and Germany’s Bundesliga, the K-League said. resume after COVID-19. South Korean players boot camp after a shooting exercise at a Marine with only Germany’s Bundesliga so far making But questions have been raised about the new dominate women’s golf with eight featuring in Corps firing range during his basic military train- concrete plans to resume. safety guidelines. “It’s impossible not to talk to the world’s top 20, including number one Ko Jin- ing in Jeju island. Son Heung-min began last Today’s opening game will be between de- your teammates,” Incheon United captain Kim young. The $1.8 million Korea Ladies Profes- month his three-week military training at a fending champions Jeonbuk Motors - who are Do-hyeok told reporters. “If we can’t have con- sional Golf Association Championship begins on marines boot camp to fulfill military service du- managed by Jose Mourinho’s former assistant versations on the field, we may as well not play May 14 in Yangju, east of Seoul with world num- ties, with the Premier League on hold over the Jose Morais - and Cup-holders Suwon Bluew- football at all.” ber six Kim Sei-young and 10th-ranked Lee coronavirus pandemic. — AFP ings. Jeonbuk have been the dominant team for The new K-League season will be an oasis of Jeong-eun in the 144-strong field. — AFP

members wearing personal protective equipment. MCEC and a commitment to repay the re- Inter Miami among Their temperatures were then taken and once NFL great Favre to mainder in instalments over the next few an individual, one hour training session was months,” White said. completed, they departed in a similar manner. “The money will be held in our clearing ac- MLS clubs making While the United Soccer League - which is ef- repay $1.1 million count for a period and then be sent, in full, to fectively the second tier in the - the Mississippi Department of Human Serv- return to training had already introduced ‘non-contact training in LOS ANGELES: NFL Hall of Fame quarter- ices to be used for TANF-appropriate expen- small groups,’ MLS are moving forward with ex- ditures. “I want to applaud Mr Favre for his treme caution. “We split the group into two seg- back Brett Favre has begun repaying $1.1 mil- MIAMI: David Beckham’s Major League Soccer lion he received in welfare money for good faith effort to make this right and make ments and split the field into four,” said team made a welcome return to training on McDonough who has been in constant contact speeches he never gave, the Mississippi state the taxpayers and TANF families whole,” Wednesday even if a raft of coronavirus proto- with Beckham via Zoom. auditor said Wednesday. Shad White said in a White added. “To date, we have seen no cols brutally laid bare the problems of battling a “There were two entry points to the fields statement that his office had received records indicating Mr. Favre knew that TANF global pandemic and resuming normal service. and a trainer in PPE would come to the car, take $500,000 from Favre, who has also pledged was the program that served as the source of Inter Miami were one of four MLS franchises to their temperature , sanitize their hands and then to pay another $600,000 in instalments over the money he was paid.” have players working out at their training facili- the players would then put on a face mask and In the audit report released on Monday, ties for the first time since the league was sus- the coming months. On Monday, White had go to their assigned quadrant in the facility. “We released an audit of spending by the Missis- White said his office found that more than $94 pended on March 12 as the COVID-19 crisis million of federal grant money that went to the wreaked havoc upon the sporting world. funneled them all through, they did their work sippi Department of Human Services that and the coaches were present while respecting showed Favre had been paid $1.1 million for Department of Human Services in Missis- MLS, who have suspended play until June 8 sippi-one of the poorest states in the United at the earliest, are allowing all clubs to have their social distancing barriers. “No player was al- three speaking engagements, a radio spot and lowed in our building.” There have been more a keynote address, none of which he partici- States-was allegedly spent improperly, con- players return based on advice from their local verted to personal use, spent on family mem- and state health authorities. Orlando, Atlanta and than 38,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus in pated in. Florida with just over 1,500 deaths, according to The money came from the Temporary As- bers and friends or wasted. Sporting Kansas also took up the option yet A former Human Services director and five during a video call with reporters, Inter Miami statistics released on Wednesday. “The players sistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, have found the last seven weeks very difficult,” others, including a former director of the sporting director Paul McDonough, sounded a which is funded by the federal government to said McDonough who stressed squad members MCEC, were indicted on state charges of em- note of caution for anyone hoping top level sport aid impoverished families. White said in a wouldn’t be in every day and would continue to bezzling some $4 million in TANF funds and in the United States is heading for a swift return. statement there was no indication that Favre- supplement their training schedules at home. have pleaded not guilty. Favre, who won a McDonough was delighted to have virtually who was paid through the non-profit Missis- “The parks have been closed and there was Super Bowl with the Packers in the 1996 sea- a full squad reporting back for duty, with players sippi Community Education Center (MCEC) - nowhere to work out but as soon as the parks son before retiring in 2010 as a member of the only allowed on site after answering an MLS knew that was the case. “Today my office has health and safety questionnaire that asked if started opening, we thought about everything received $500,000 from Brett Favre in repay- Minnesota Vikings, is a Mississippi native who because if they are in a park, you can’t protect now lives in the state. — AFP they’d had a fever, felt ill or had a cough recently. ment for TANF money he was paid through Players parked three spaces away from one an- them from people coming up to them and rec- other in the car park and were greeted by staff ognizing them and wanting selfies. — AFP