Industry Shorts: NFL London, Flutter Entertainment
The NFL has moved all four of its 2020 London fixtures back to the US in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
According to the league, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell made this decision after consultation with clubs as well as with national and local governments, the NFL Players Association, medical authorities and international stadium partners.
Two games, involving the Jacksonville Jaguars, were due to take place at Wembley in the autumn, with a further two slated for the Tottenham Hotspur stadium. One further NFL game, which was set to take place at the Azteca Stadium in Mexico, will also be moved back to the USA.
Flutter Entertainment, the parent company of Paddy Power Betfair and FanDuel, has officially merged with The Stars Group (TSG).
The deal was first agreed in October 2019 and has now been made official. It sees TSG brands such as Sky Betting and Gaming and PokerStars form a combined business with Flutter and its stable of businesses.
The Swimathon Foundation has launched a new coronavirus relief fund to help the swimming and aquatics community deal with the impact of the pandemic.
The Foundation, which organises the annual Swimathon event which last year raised £50 million for charity, will seek to allocate grants of between £250 and £1,000 to small swimming and aquatic organisations experiencing short-term financial hardship from the effects of lockdown, especially where access to financial support is not otherwise available.
It says these range from National Governing Body Affiliated Swim Clubs, Aquatic Clubs and Swim Schools to Independent Swimming Organisations
The return of professional football in the UK could see players playing matches shorter than 90 minutes, according to Gordon Taylor, CEO, The PFA.
Speaking to BBC radio, Taylor said that playing halves of less than 45 minutes was among the proposals being considered to address the player welfare concerns of scheduling multiple matches in a short space of time in order to finish the season.
Meanwhile, EFL Chair Rick Parry and ECB CEO Tom Harrison have both given evidence in front of a Digital, Culture, Media and Sport committee about the impact the virus will have on their respective organisations.
Parry warned that, owing to player contracts, EFL clubs could not finish the season beyond July, but added that he also expected three clubs to be promoted to the Premier League, with three relegated clubs taking their place. “There would be a degree of outrage from a number of clubs in the Championship and it would be a breach of the tripartite agreement,” he said.
Meanwhile, Harrison stated that cricket could lose £380m if no games played this year – something he described as the ‘worse case scenario’.
“It is the most significant financial challenge, for cricket, we have ever faced,” he said.
SailGP has postponed Season 2 until 2021 and has announced some new dates for next year.
Two of the four impacted events – San Francisco, which has been rescheduled for 17th and 18th April, and New York, slated for 4th and 5th June 2021 – have new dates, while SailGP also says it intends to return to the UK and Denmark during the rescheduled Season 2, replacing racing previously planned August and September 2020 dates.
Meanwhile, the organisation has also confirmed that Season 2 is set to be expanded from five to a minimum of seven events during the year-long period beginning in April 2021, spanning to the early months of 2022.
Results from 2020 Sydney SailGP – the first and only completed event of the year – will be null and void as it pushes its second season back a year.
