30 / 32
Sports
TUESDAY, APRIL 21, 2020
30
LONDON (AFP) - Brighton’s Amex stadium is
the latest British sports venue to be turned
into a coronavirus testing centre, the Premier
League club conirmed on Sunday.
The Tottenham Hotspur stadium and the
home of English rugby, Twickenham, have also
been converted into drive-through testing fa-
cilities as part of the British government’s ef-
fort to increase testing for thousands more
National Health Service (NHS) sta and other
key workers.
“The centre was scheduled to see more
than 50 NHS frontline workers on Saturday af-
ternoon, and they will have the results of their
tests within 48 hours. Within a few days, the
site should reach its capacity of up to 1,000
tests a day,” said Brighton Chief Executive
Paul Barber.
“We have committed to do everything we
can to assist the NHS and other key workers in
this crisis.
“We have already opened up the doors of
the training ground, as well as the stadium, to
be used by the NHS, emergency services and
local authority for training, storage or what-
ever they feel it can be used for in the ight
against this pandemic.”
The United Kingdom (UK) government has
come under increasing pressure to ramp up
its testing capability to help control the spread
of COVID19.
The oicial death toll in Britain soared by
888 last Saturday to 15,464.
Premier League matches have been sus-
pended indeinitely due to the virus.
ASHGABAT, TURKMENISTAN (AFP) - Turkmen-
istan rebooted its domestic football season
on Sunday, with fans returning to stadiums in
one of the few countries yet to declare a case
of coronavirus.
Around 300 people attended a top-of-the
table clash between last season’s champions
Altyn Asyr and league leaders Kopetdag in a
20,000-capacity stadium in the capital Ash-
gabat.
The two teams played out an attritional 11
drawwith both goals coming in the second half.
Like several other fans interviewed by AFP,
none of whom wore masks, Murad, a 60-year-
old Kopetdag fan, said he had no fear of the
coronavirus pandemic and planned to con-
tinue attending games.
“Sport kills all viruses,” he joked. “When your
favourite team win, it lifts your immunity!”
He hoped his team could stay the pace at
the top of the division.
“This club is a legendary club,” Murad said.
The authoritarian Central Asian state
followed other countries when it suspended
its eight-team league in March just three
games into the season.
The national football federation cited rec-
ommendations by the Health Ministry and
the World Health Organization for preventing
the spread of the illness.
But a month later, football made a return
to the gas-rich country.
“We have no coronavirus, so why not re-
start our league?” said Yashir Yusupov.
SHANGHAI (AFP) - The wealthy owners
of Chinese champions Guangzhou Ever-
grande will build two stadiums with ca-
pacities of 80,000 each, in addition to the
club’s new 100,000-seat home.
Chinese Super League (CSL) clubs are
building or renovating a clutch of stadiums
with the country set to host the newly ex-
panded 2021 FIFA Club World Cup and AFC
Asian Cup in 2023.
But the rush on new arenas will also
heighten speculation that China is gearing
up for a bid to host the World Cup, possibly
in 2030.
Evergrande Group, a major prop-
erty developer, has asked fans to pick
their favourite designs for two more
new stadiums.
“Evergrande plans to build two addi-
tional 80,000-seat football ields and in-
vites everyone to recommend two of the
six preliminary plans,” Guangzhou Ever-
grande’s owners said on social media.
The statement did not give any further
information such as where in China or
when the stadiums would be built.
CSL champions Guangzhou Ever-
grande, coached by Italian World Cup
winner Fabio Cannavaro, began work
last Thursday on their eye-catching
new home.
Costing USD1.7 billion, it will be bigger
than Barcelona’s famous Camp Nou and
is scheduled for completion by the end
of 2022.
Evergrande Group’s founder Xu Jiayin is
one of the richest men in China.
SYDNEY (AFP) - The head of Australia’s National
Rugby League (NRL) stepped down with imme-
diate e ect yesterday, as the top-level competi-
tion continues to reel from the COVID19 crisis.
The NRL said “it has been mutually agreed”
that Chief Executive Oicer Todd Greenberg
(pic right)
stepped down yesterday “after re-
lecting on the needs of the game”.
The cash-strapped league, which pitches
itself as part of Australia’s social fabric, has
loated a series of unsuccessful schemes to get
play restarted quickly - including isolating play-
ers on an island.
After vowing to play on through the crisis,
the season was suspended on March 24 after
just two rounds as the government shut down
all non-essential gatherings in a bid to stem the
spread of coronavirus.
That has caused TV revenues to dry up and
could threaten the existence of several teams
and the inancial viability of the league.
The NRL is planning to resume on May 28
but it is far from clear if that will be possible,
with the government warning that travel re-
strictions and social distancing could remain in
place for the foreseeable future.
As well as being a lucrative TV prod-
uct, rugby league in Australia also fills
newspaper columns with players’ soap-
opera-style scandals.
“It has been my great honour and privilege
to be the CEO of the NRL for the last four years.
Despite the variety of challenges and pressures
Brighton’s stadium becomes coronavirus testing centre
Australia rugby league chief quits
as virus crisis deepens
I have loved every singleminute of the journey,”
said Greenberg.
“I am very proud of my contribution to
the game.”
The NRL appointed Chief Commercial Oicer
AndrewAbdo as anActingChief Executive “while
a search is undertaken” for a replacement.
Even when games do return they are likely
to be behind closed doors due to guidelines
on social distancing.
The Premier League is examining propos-
als using a small number of neutral venues to
play all the remaining 92 games of the season
to minimise the number of medical, media
and security personnel needed.
That would free up those stadiums being
utilised for services to help ight the virus to
fulill that need for a longer period.
Testing is also likely to hold the key to
whether the Premier League season can be
completed at all.
Until widespread testing is available to the
public, league oicials are wary of draining
resources by testing players with the aim of
clearing them to return to action.
Sta and members of the armed forces prepare for the opening of a new coronavirus testing
facility for NHS workers at the AMEX Stadium in Brighton, East Sussex. PHOTO: AFP
Turkmenistan football season
restarts with crowds
Football supporters attend the Turkmenistan national football championship match between
Altyn Asyr and Kopetdag. PHOTO: AFP
Evergrande to build
twomore 80,000-seat
stadiums in China