Top women golfers will keep their status on the LPGA Tour for 2021, commissioner Mike Whan says, because the coronavirus-halted 2020 campaign has not delivered the season they earned.
Whan says the abbreviated season, shuttered in February after four events and tentatively scheduled to return in late July, will be considered official.
While this year's winners can move up on the priority list, 2020 rookies will still be considered newcomers in 2021.
"We will have official wins, players can shuffle into a winner category, they can play their way into (December's season-ending) Tournament of Champions in Orlando, but we feel players were not given the season that they earned in '19 for '20," Whan said.
"They might have some version of a '20 season. But they don't have a full season to perform under the categories they earned coming into the year." Global travel issues could impact LPGA players and disrupt a schedule still hopeful of playing events in Europe in August, in Asia in October 

LPGA boss says players will keep status for 2021 season

PTI Automatic

The English Football League (EFL) reiterated on Thursday that promotion and relegation should be kept in place even if the season is ended prematurely by the coronavirus crisis.
Clubs agreed to end the League Two campaign last week because of the pandemic and proposed no team should be relegated to the fifth-tier National League.
But the EFL, which oversees the three divisions below the Premier League, said relegation remained in its draft framework on how the 2019/20 season should be concluded, meaning bottom side Stevenage would go down from League Two.
The regulations state each league will be decided on a points-per-game basis if they cannot be completed.
A simple majority of clubs (51 percent) would need to vote to end the season in each division.
If the plans for League Two are approved, Crewe, Swindon and Plymouth would be automatically promoted.
"The principle of relegation across all three divisions is integral to the integrity of the pyramid, from the Premier League down to .

English lower leagues call for relegation and promotion to stay

Hertha Berlin will look to build on their winning return to Bundesliga action last weekend following the coronavirus suspension and avenge November's derby defeat by city rivals Union when the pair meet on Friday in the German capital.
Union, the side from the east of Berlin, pulled off a famous 1-0 win over their west Berlin rivals when the teams met for the first time in the top division this season.
The return match at Hertha's Olympic Stadium home would in normal times have been a 74,000 sellout.
"We all remember the match at the Alten Foersterei. It was a black, black, day. Now we've got the chance to put it behind us just a bit," said Hertha's general manager Michael Preetz.
"The conditions are very different, therefore it's a different sort of derby," added Hertha coach Bruno Labbadia, who started with a win in his first match last Saturday.
The Bundesliga became the first major European league to resume last weekend following the two-month shutdown, with draconian hygiene ...

Hertha out for Union revenge in Berlin derby

The head of a European health advisory body on infections on Thursday warned of a second wave of coronavirus cases, as countries across the continent ease tough lockdown measures.
Andrea Ammon, director of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, said it was not a question of if there will be a renewed surge but "when and how big".
She told Britain's Guardian newspaper that immunity statistics from around Europe were not encouraging and "85 percent to 90 percent" of people were still susceptible to COVID-19.
"The virus is around us, circulating much more than January or February," she was quoted as saying in an interview.  "I don't want to draw a doomsday picture but I think we have to be realistic. That it's not the time now to completely relax." Europe has seen more than 170,000 deaths in the global pandemic, according to an AFP tally to 1230 GMT Thursday. Most have been in Britain, Italy, Spain and France.
But stay-at-home restrictions put in place to cut the spread .

European health boss warns of virus second wave

Stuart Broad revealed some of the demands being placed on England cricketers after confirming he was in the first batch to return to individual training on Thursday.
The Nottinghamshire paceman was back at Trent Bridge after being chosen as one of the bowlers selected for personal sessions.
The players are seeking to build up their match fitness ahead of a rescheduled Test series at home to the West Indies in July, which is set to take place behind closed doors due to the coronavirus.
Broad, a 33-year-old veteran of 138 Tests, detailed his training day via his Instagram account, posting a picture of himself taking his temperature with a digital thermometer at home before uploading the result via an app.
When he arrived at Trent Bridge, Broad was given a designated car-parking space and directed straight onto the pitch -- as part of the safety protocols players are not allowed to change in the dressing room and must arrive in their training kit.
He then bowled on his own, with only a ..

England's Broad gives glimpse into post-lockdown training

Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has warned his players that "personal agendas" will not be tolerated as he seeks a change of culture at Old Trafford.
Solskjaer has overseen a huge turnover in his squad since taking charge in 2018.  Romelu Lukaku and Alexis Sanchez were high-profile departures to Inter Milan, while Chris Smalling, Matteo Darmian, Antonio Valencia, Ander Herrera, Ashley Young and Marcos Rojo also left in a mix of permanent and loan deals during that period.
Solskjaer is much happier with the current makeup of his squad having recruited a number of young talents in Harry Maguire, Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Daniel James and Bruno Fernandes.
But the Norwegian said he would have no qualms about getting rid of another negative influence, even if it meant unbalancing his squad.
"Personality is so important. We're a team in a team environment," Solskjaer said in an interview with fanzine United We Stand.
"You want players to have a bit of ego and edge but they have to ..

Solskjaer warns 'personal agendas' will not be tolerated

N'Golo Kante has been allowed to stay away from Chelsea's return to training due to his coronavirus fears.
The French World Cup winner joined up with Frank Lampard's squad on Tuesday as Chelsea resumed training following the Premier League's decision to allow socially distanced sessions.
But the 29-year-old missed Wednesday's small group practice with the blessing of Chelsea manager Frank Lampard, who is reported to have allowed him to train at home on compassionate leave.
Kante, who tested negative for the virus during this week's first batch of checks, is said to be unconvinced it is safe to train with his teammates while the pandemic is yet to be subdued in Britain.
Black and ethnic minorities are at greater risk of serious illness if they contract the virus, according to the Office for National Statistics.
Midfielder Kante is understood to have mostly remained indoors with one of his brothers since the suspension of the Premier League season on March 13.
The former Leicester star .

Kante stays away from Chelsea training over virus fears

Colombia's Jarlinson Pantano has been banned for four years by cycling's world governing body after testing positive for the blood booster EPO last year.
Pantano, who won a stage on the 2016 Tour de France, failed an out-of-competition test in February 2019, shortly after racing in the Tour de Haut Var in southern France.
The Trek-Segafredo rider was provisionally suspended in April 2019.  Pantano, 31, was Colombia's time-trial champion in 2017 and has also won stages at the Tour of Switzerland and the Tour of Catalonia.
He announced last June that he was retiring from the sport.

Colombian cyclist Pantano receives four-year doping ban

Former France international Franck Ribery is back in training with Fiorentina after missing almost six months with a serious ankle injury.
The 37-year-old took part in an individual session on Wednesday after Serie A clubs were given the green light to resume group training this week.
Ribery, who joined Fiorentina this season after 12 years with Bayern Munich, returned to Italy a fortnight ago after spending several weeks in Germany during the coronavirus lockdown.
He scored twice in 11 games for Fiorentina before undergoing surgery on his right ankle after suffering the injury in a game against Lecce on November 30.
Football in Italy has been suspended until mid-June. A decision over whether the season can resume is expected to be taken next week.

Ribery returns to Fiorentina training after six months out

Eight footballers from top-flight Mexican team Santos Laguna have tested positive for the coronavirus, the club said Wednesday, jeopardising attempts to restart the national league after two months of suspension.
A decision on the possible resumption of the Mexican league, the Liga MX, had been expected by the end of the week, and the tests were carried out with a view to resuming training.
"This particular situation makes resuming the league more complicated," Santos Laguna's owner, Alejandro Irarragorri, told TV sports channel TUDN.
He also hinted that the situation at Santos Laguna could be even worse, because so far only 22 results have come back out of 48 tests on players and coaches.  Liga MX said the players with COVID-19, whose identities have not been revealed, were asymptomatic.
Two other clubs, Guadalajara and Monterrey, are also carrying out screening for the disease. Monterrey said it had not identified any positive cases.
With more than 6,000 fatalities, Mexico has the ..

Eight footballers test positive in Mexico, jeopardising league restart

Olympics chief Thomas Bach said 2021 was the "last option" for holding the delayed Tokyo Games on Thursday, stressing that postponement cannot go on forever.
Bach told the BBC that he agreed with Japan's stance that the Games will have to be cancelled if the coronavirus pandemic isn't under control by next year.
In March, the Tokyo 2020 Olympics were postponed to July 23, 2021 as the coronavirus spread across the globe, killing hundreds of thousands of people and making international sport impossible.
"Quite frankly, I have some understanding for (Japan's position) because you cannot forever employ 3,000, or 5,000, people in an organising committee," the International Olympic Committee president said.
"You cannot every year change the entire sports schedule worldwide for all the major federations.
"You cannot have the athletes being in uncertainty, you cannot have so much overlapping with a future Olympic Games."
The Olympics have never been cancelled outside of the world wars, but ...

2021 'last option' for Tokyo Games, says Olympics chief

Sex dolls used as spectator by FC Seoul in South Korea football league

In the absence of spectators, organisers have tried several ways -- Robot drummers, Baseball barbecue --- to make empty stadium more appealing

Piped noise to sex dolls: What organisers are doing to fill empty stadiums

Business Standard

NBA teams expect the league office to issue guidelines around June 1 allowing teams to begin recalling far-flung players in anticipation of resuming the coronavirus-disrupted season, ESPN reported.
The US sports broadcaster said teams expect to be told about the same time when they can expand individual workouts -- already underway at some clubs -- to include more team personnel.
And ESPN said, citing unnamed sources, many owners and club executives expect league commissioner Adam Silver to announce in June that the season will resume -- with games to begin "sometime before the end of July."
The NBA halted the season on March 11 after Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert became the first player to test positive for deadly COVID-19.
The stoppage came as the league hurtled toward its playoffs, which were due to start in April.
Plans for a possible return include how to bring back players who have departed their teams' markets -- including those who have returned to homes overseas such as Dallas 

NBA to issue guidelines around June 1 on recalling players - report

A satirical mock-up depicting the Tokyo Olympics logo as the new coronavirus has been pulled after Olympic organisers branded it "insensitive" and said it infringed copyright.
The design combines the distinctive, spiky image of the coronavirus cell with the blue-and-white Tokyo 2020 logo, and appeared on the front page of an in-house magazine published by the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan (FCCJ).
The Tokyo 2020 Olympics have been postponed until next year because of the coronavirus, which has killed hundreds of thousands of people and halted sport worldwide.
FCCJ president Khaldon Azhari said Thursday the club had decided to withdraw the image and remove it from its website after advice that its legal defence against a potential copyright breach was "not strong".
"More importantly, we are all in this coronavirus crisis together and clearly the cover offended some people in our host country Japan," said Azhari, voicing "sincere regret".
Speaking to reporters on Monday, Tokyo ...

'Insensitive' Japan Olympic coronavirus logo pulled after row

Livening up sport without fans is a challenge for competitions returning after the coronavirus, and organisers have tried several ways to make empty stadiums more appealing.
After South Korean football club FC Seoul received a record fine for using sex dolls to fill seats, AFP Sport looks at some of the innovations:
- Robot drummers -
==================
Sport took a surreal twist when Taiwan's baseball league started last month, with robots providing live music as they drummed in the stands. In what could have been a scene from Star Wars, a group of robots -- some wearing wigs -- banged drums for Rakuten Monkeys' opening game.
Mannequins wearing team colours were placed around the stadium, along with cardboard cut-outs of fans, media and players' family members.
- Crowd sourcing -
==================
Cardboard cut-outs have been a popular way to fill seats, but German football club Borussia Moenchengladbach took the idea a step further when it gave fans the chance to have life-sized ...

Piped noise, robots and sex dolls: what happens in stadiums without fans

South Korea's FC Seoul were fined a record 100 million won ($81,000) for using sex dolls to fill seats at a match held behind closed doors, with K-League officials saying the football club had "deeply humiliated women fans".
With spectators barred because of the coronavirus, FC Seoul came under fire after dozens of dolls wearing T-shirts or holding placards with the logo of a sex-toy seller appeared at Sunday's game. The incident made headlines around the world.
After reviewing the case, the K-League accepted FC Seoul's claim that it did not know the mannequins were sex toys, but said it "could have easily recognised their use using common sense and experience".
"The controversy over this 'real doll' incident has deeply humiliated and hurt women fans (and) damaged the integrity of the league," it said in a statement late Wednesday, handing down the largest fine in its 38-year-history.
FC Seoul accepted the decision, apologised and promised to prevent a repeat. Reports say a mannequin .

Korean football club get record fine over sex dolls in stands

The German women's championship will resume behind closed doors on May 29, the country's football federation (DFB) announced, after a suspension of almost three months due to the coronavirus.
The men's season resumed last weekend, also without fans and under strict health measures designed to minimise the threat from the virus.
"I am very happy that the Bundesliga's women's clubs have come out in favour of the continuation of the season," said DFB president Fritz Keller.
"It's precisely this unity that we need during this crisis."
Clubs had already voted overwhelmingly to resume the season with 11 of the 12 in favour at a meeting of officials on April 30. FC Cologne abstained.
When the season was halted after 16 games, Wolfsburg topped the table with 46 points, eight ahead of second-placed Bayern Munich.

German women's league to resume May 29

Charley Hoffman, one of the players providing input as the US PGA Tour plots its return from its coronavirus hiatus, says golfers will face a changed landscape when competition resumes.
"What we used to do and how easy, how fluid we had it is not going to be that way any more," Hoffman said on a Zoom conference with reporters on Wednesday.
"We can't just jump in a courtesy car and be at the course in eight minutes. "We'll just have to figure it out."
Hoffman, a four-time winner on the PGA Tour, is chairman of the 16-member Player Advisory Council, which advises commissioner Jay Monahan and the Policy Board.
He said the Tour has prepared as well as possible for its scheduled restart at the Charles Schawb Challenge at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas, June 11-14.
But, Hoffman said, the unexpected is sure to crop up.
"They're plans ... they're not set in stone and we're not acting like we have all the answers," Hoffman said.
"It's very comprehensive and detailed, but I wouldn't 

PGA pro Hoffman says Tour's return plan doesn't 'have all the answers'

Jakob Ingebrigtsen edged out brother Henrik to set a national 5km road race record as athletics returned to Norway after a coronavirus-enforced absence.
Jakob clocked 13min 29sec in Stavanger with Henrik just a couple of seconds behind, also inside the old record time of 13:37.
"The most important thing for the boys is to have a good experience and to get started with the season," Gjert Ingebrigtsen, the father and coach of Jakob and Henrik, told Norwegian broadcaster NRK in remarks carried by Athletics Weekly.
The 2.5km loop course street race had been adapted to meet health rules because of the pandemic.

Jakob Ingebrigtsen triumphs in family affair as racing returns in Norway

Willy Caballero has agreed a new one-year deal with Chelsea, the Premier League side announced on Wednesday after exercising their option to trigger a 12-month extension in the goalkeeper's contract.
"I am very happy to make this announcement. It is a privilege to be part of this Chelsea squad and the Chelsea family, at one of the most historic clubs in the Premier League," Caballero told Chelsea's website.
"It is a difficult time for everyone right now so I feel blessed by this opportunity and truly appreciate it." Caballero has played nine times for Frank Lampard's side this term, with the Argentine's last appearance coming in a 2-2 draw at Bournemouth in late February.
The 38-year-old, who joined from Manchester City in 2017, started the season as back-up to Kepa Arrizabalaga.
He earned a run of five successive starts in the first team after the Spaniard made a series of costly mistakes.
Kepa had reclaimed his place by the time the Premier League was suspended due to the ...

Caballero pens one-year contract extension with Chelsea

The head of Motorsport UK urged the government on Wednesday to spare Formula One from quarantine laws that threaten plans to stage a British Grand Prix this year.
Silverstone is planning to host two races behind closed doors this summer, subject to British government approval, to make up for some of the lost time in the 2020 F1 season with 10 races already either cancelled or postponed.
But Formula One said Tuesday the races would be "impossible" if overseas arrivals are not exempt from 14-day quarantine restrictions when entering the United Kingdom.
With the COVID-19 quarantine rules due to come into force on June 1, David Richards, chairman of Motorsport UK, called on the government to ensure two grands prix at the Silverstone circuit could go ahead as planned on July 26 and August 2.
"People forget that there is probably not one other sport that has such a big economic impact on this country as Formula One, in terms of the number of people employed here, either directly or ...

AFP

AFP

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