On December 31, 2019, the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) China office heard the first reports of a previously-unknown virus behind a number of pneumonia cases in Wuhan, a city in Eastern China with a population of over 11 million.
What started as an epidemic mainly limited to China has now become a truly global pandemic. There have now been over
204,029 confirmed cases, 82,107 recovered and 8,241 deaths, according the John Hopkins University Covid-19 dashboard, which collates information from national and international health authorities. The disease has been detected in at least 150 countries and territories, with Italy, Iran, Spain and France experiencing the most widespread outbreaks outside of China. In the UK, there have been 1,961 confirmed cases and 71 deaths as of March 18.
Following the recent cancellation of the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, the ATP announced a six-week suspension of the men’s professional tennis tour on Thursday, 12th of March due to escalating health and safety issues arising. The suspension means all ATP Tour and ATP Challenger Tour events scheduled up to and inclusive of the week of April 20 will not take place.
All affected ATP Tour events are the Miami Open presented by Itau, the Fayez Sarofim & Co U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championships in Houston, the Grand Prix Hassan II in Marrakech, the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters, the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell, and the Hungarian Open in Budapest.
Four days later, WTA suspended the female tour until May 2 when they announced that forthcoming tournaments in Stuttgart, Istanbul and Prague will not be held as scheduled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
After all the major leagues in Europe were brought to an abrupt end, UEFA joined the trend by announcing the postponement of its flagship national team competition, UEFA EURO 2020, due to be played in June and July this year.
South American football apex body, CONMEBOL, also follows suit by adjournig the 2020 edition of Copa America scheduled for Argentina and Colombia.
They cited the health of all those involved in the game as the priority, as well as to avoid placing any unnecessary pressure on national public services involved in staging matches. The move will definitely help all domestic competitions currently on hold to be completed.
All UEFA competitions and matches (including friendlies) for clubs and national teams for both men and women have been put on hold until further notice. The UEFA EURO 2020 play-off matches and international friendlies, scheduled for the end of March, will now be played in the international window at the start of June, subject to a review of the situation.
The decisions, taken by UEFA’s Executive Committee, followed video conference meetings with the presidents and general secretaries of it’s 55 national associations, as well as representatives of the European Club Association, European Leagues and FIFPro Europe, convened by UEFA President Aleksander Čeferin, to find a coherent plan to break the logjam of fixtures.
After reaching a mutual concession with leagues and club representatives, UEFA set up a working group to examine calendar solutions that would allow for the completion of the current season and any other consequence of the decisions made today.
This theoretically freed up room for remaining club commitments to be seen through by the recognised end of the season – June 30 being the date when out-of-contract players would normally cease to be employed by their clubs.
Announcing the decisions, Aleksander Čeferin said:”We are at the helm of a sport that vast numbers of people live and breathe that has been laid low by this invisible and fast-moving opponent. It is at times like these that the football community needs to show responsibility, unity, solidarity and altruism.
“The health of fans, staff and players has to be our number one priority and, in that spirit, UEFA tabled a range of options so that competitions can finish this season safely and I am proud of the response of my colleagues across European football. There was a real spirit of cooperation, with everyone recognising that they had to sacrifice something in order to achieve the best result.
“It was important that, as the governing body of European football, UEFA led the process and made the biggest sacrifice. Moving EURO 2020 comes at a huge cost for UEFA but we will do our best to ensure that the vital funding for grassroots, women’s football and the development of the game in our 55 countries is not affected. Purpose over profit has been our guiding principle in taking this decision for the good of European football as a whole.
“Football is an uplifting and powerful force in society. The thought of celebrating a pan-European festival of football in empty stadia, with deserted fan zones while the continent sits at home in isolation, is a joyless one and one we could not accept to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the competition.
They will work out the full details in the coming weeks but the basic principles have been agreed and that is a major step forward. UEFA have all shown that they are responsible leaders. They have demonstrated solidarity and unity. Purpose over profit. They’ve achieved this.
Ceferin also commended the effort of his fellow law makers for reaching a compromise amidst this turbulent time of the season.
“I would also like to thank Alejandro Domínguez and CONMEBOL, who have agreed to move CONMEBOL’s 2020 Copa America in order to follow the recommendations issued by the international public health organisations to enact extreme measures and as a result of EURO 2020 being postponed. This means that clubs and leagues in Europe will have as little disruption as possible in the availability of their players. These joint efforts and especially this coordinated and responsible decision, are deeply appreciated by the whole European football community.
“I would like to thank FIFA and its President, Gianni Infantino, who has indicated it will do whatever is required to make this new calendar work. In the face of this crisis, football has shown its best side with openness, solidarity and tolerance.”
All these suspension comes in the wake of the World Health Organization’s declaration on Wednesday, 11th of March that COVID-19 constitutes a global pandemic and the 30-day travel restriction announced by the United States for foreign nationals from 26 European countries. The suspension follows numerous local government orders on restrictions, bans or cancellations of public gatherings or events.
It appears that the ATP, WTA, ITF, UEFA, FIFA, CAF, FA, RFEF, and other governoring bodies has been closely monitoring the rapidly evolving situation related to COVID-19, taking advice from medical experts and travel advisors and consulting with all local regulatory authorities, and will continuously review the feasibility of subsequent events in the calendar.
But a surprise sprung in tennis world hours after UEFA made their announcement. Even though, ATP and WTA tours had officially cancelled tournaments into April and May, respectively, with no word on Roland Garros (which is not under jurisdiction of either tour), the question on the lips of ardent tennis follower was “what would the next Grand Slam do in the face of the unprecedented coronavirus outbreak?”
We got our answers on Tuesday, when the tournament organizers announced that it would move the start of the event to September 20, with a conclusion on October 4.
Based on the fact that the current confinement situation in France made holding the tournament on its normally scheduled date of May 24 “impossible.”
“We have made a difficult yet brave decision in this UNPRECEDENTED situation, which has evolved greatly since last weekend. We are acting responsibly, and must work together in the fight to ensure everybody’s health and safety,” said Bernard Giudicelli, President of the FFT.
But what FFT failed to consider is that the targeted period sees Roland Garros begin just a week after the US Open is due to conclude and also colliding with a number of events already on the tennis calendar.
This will see the last three slams of the year being played in the space of just four months (29 June to 4 October) on three different surfaces as the organisers of Wimbledon, the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club (AELTC), has confirmed that the championships will still be going ahead as planned, even though all sporting activities in the United Kingdom capital — The London Marathon, Euro 2020, the Grand National — has been postponed and it seems all the summer sport highlights aren’t going to happen this year.
ATP Tour: Laver Cup, Metz, St. Petersburg (September 25)
ATP Tour: Chengdu, Sofia, Zhuhai (September 28)
WTA Tour: Guangzhou, Seoul, Tokyo (September 21)
WTA Tour: Wuhan (September 28)
There are a lot of people in high up places in different areas of the sport who had zero idea of that announcement. In the greatest age of communication and ease of, Tennis is still using carrier pigeons.
A mention of any reference to consulting with the two tours and players was noticeably absent from the FFT’s announcement.
In the WTA statement cited above, they said they will “make a decision in the week ahead regarding the remaining WTA European clay court events and will continue to monitor this situation closely and its impact on the 2020 WTA Tour season.”
It shows they are willing to reach an agreement and possibly make a compromise to their calendar after working hand-in-hand with other associated parties, but this decision met them with shock that players immediately responded to it, making it clear there was little, if any, communication between the ITF, tours and its competitors.
Former ATP Player Council member Robin Haase wrote, “in tough times like these, “communication and working together are as important as ever,” but Vasek Pospisil, who currently serves on the council, took it a step further in a tweet that has since been deleted.
“This is madness. Major announcement by Roland Garros changing the dates to one week after the US Open. No communication with the players or the ATP… we have ZERO say in this sport. It’s time. #UniteThePlayers,” he wrote
In a translated tweet, Diego Schwartzman shared that ‘once again, we found out on Twitter.’
“Excusez moi???,” two-time major winner Naomi Osaka published.
Definitely this move has caused a mayhem in the tennis calendar, with the Laver Cup – the brainchild of Roger Federer – set to bear the biggest loss.
Laver Cup — now officially sanctioned as an ATP Tour event — is an international indoor hard court men’s tennis tournament between two teams: Team Europe and Team World, the latter of which is composed of players from non-European countries.
Roger Federer’s management company, TEAM8, Brazilian businessman and former Davis Cup player Jorge Paulo Lemann, and Tennis Australia partnered to create the Laver Cup.
The 20-time Grand Slam winner was inspired to create a tennis team tournament based on the biennial Ryder Cup golf tournament, which features the best golfers from the United States playing against the best golfers from Europe.
At 10:20pm ET, Laver Cup officials added to little surprise that they too, were blindsided, seeing their event was now up against the clay-court major.
“These dates overlap with the dates of Laver Cup 2020, already sold out, and scheduled for September 25 – 27, 2020 at TD Garden in Boston.” They added, “It raises many questions and we are assessing the situation. At this time, we want our fans, sponsors, broadcasters, staff, volunteers, players and the great city of Boston to know that we intend to hold Laver Cup 2020 as currently scheduled.”
With this, it is believed that only Roger Federer will choose his Laver Cup, no contest, and his fans will always come for him but the expensive tickets and overpriced seats of this exhibition tournament coupled with the fact that most of the top players are unlikely to play will actually serve as the impediment to it’s success.
Almost all of the tennis governing bodies are going against the French Open, for their “arrogance” in not consulting with other Slams, the ATP, WTA, or even the ITF who supervise the majors, not to mention most of the players, it is believed they unilaterally bulldozed other minor scheduled events.
Around 6:45pm ET, the USTA released a statement regarding the 2020 US Open, and the undertone spoke to their dissatisfaction with the way an industry partner went about making their ultimate decision.
“At a time when the world is coming together, we recognize that such a decision should not be made unilaterally, and therefore the USTA would only do so in full consultation with the other Grand Slam tournaments, the WTA and ATP, the ITF and our partners, including the Laver Cup.”
The ATP and WTA are expected to make a joint statement as a mention of any reference to consulting with the two tours and players was noticeably absent from the FFT’s announcement.
In the wake of expecting Laver Cup and other tournaments to put a stop to this disrespectful and selfish actions by French Federation of Tennis, this situation is hard enough for everyone. No one needs to remind them of the major sanitary crisis we are currently facing in the whole world, they should better get the Sport back as smooth as possible and should work together not against each other.
Written by
OLAMIDE ABE
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