The Latest on the effects of the coronavirus outbreak on sports around the world:
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The National Soccer Hall of Fame is reopening for the first time in nearly three months.
The museum in Frisco, Texas, will reopen to the public Wednesday at 50% of its usual capacity. It has been closed since March 13 because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Facemasks will be encouraged but not required for guests, but social distancing protocols are required for all individual guests and groups.
Only one group of guests will be allowed to use each interactive exhibit at a time, though some interactive exhibits like virtual reality won’t be available. Staff will be sanitize interactive experiences after each use, and the facility with be thoroughly cleaned each evening.
The hall opened to the public in North Texas in November 2018 after being located in Oneonta, New York, from 1983-2010.
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Georgia Tech’s Josh Pastner is among those pushing to allow coaches to work with their players in July in the wake of the coronavirus shutdown, a change from voluntary summer workouts.
The Yellow Jackets are reopening their athletic facilities on June 15 for Atlanta-based athletes to work out in small groups, but the sessions must be voluntary.
Pastner said it’s important that basketball coaches be allowed to oversee the workouts beginning in July, given they haven’t been around their players since the pandemic brought sports to a halt in mid-March.
“Our feeling is, ‘Why have the guys back on campus if they’re not able to work with the coaches in the gym?’” Pastner said.
The NCAA’s Division I Council is set to take up the proposal at its June 17 meeting, according to Pastner. If it fails to pass, coaches will have to wait until classes begin in August to oversee players workouts.
The Georgia Tech coach also said the pandemic has forced him to change his philosophy on scheduling. The Yellow Jackets are likely to pick up more regional opponents as a way to cut down on costs, which is the reason they agreed to multi-year series with Georgia State, another Atlanta-based school that is only a few miles from the Tech campus, and UAB in neighboring Alabama.
“We’re being nimble with our scheduling and what we have to do based on Covid-19,” Pastner said. “That’s really important budget-wise.”
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The regular seasons in the third and fourth divisions of English soccer have been cut short because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The English Football League says clubs “voted by an overwhelming majority” to end the season and the final standings have been calculated using an unweighted points-per-game basis.
The framework retained promotion, relegation and the traditional four-team playoffs.
Coventry and Rotherham have been promoted to the second division and Wycombe, Oxford, Portsmouth and Fleetwood will contest the playoffs.
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France’s highest administrative court has upheld the decision to cancel the rest of the soccer season amid the coronavirus pandemic and suspended the relegations of Amiens and Toulouse to the second division.
The Conseil d’Etat issued its ruling after Lyon president Jean-Michel Aulas and the two demoted clubs took the case to court last month in a bid to force the league to play the remaining 10 matches of the aborted season.
The league was canceled with Paris Saint-Germain declared champion. Lyon finished outside the European places in seventh.
The Conseil d’Etat ruled that there was “no serious doubt as to the legality of the decision” to end the season prematurely. But it suspended the relegation of Amiens and Toulouse and ordered the French league to rethink the format of the 2020-21 season.
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The Evian Championship women’s major golf tournament has been canceled because of the coronavirus outbreak.
The event in France had already been postponed from July to Aug. 6-9.
Organizers say they cannot overcome “uncertainty concerning the opening of borders” with Asia and the United States.
Tournament chairman Franck Riboud says the cancellation is “unavoidable in view of the situation with regards to U.S. travel to continental Europe.”
The Women’s British Open is still set for Aug. 20-23 in Troon, Scotland.
The three majors played in the United States have been rescheduled for later in the year.
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The Wales Rally GB has become the latest race in the world rally championship to be called off because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The rally was scheduled for Oct. 29-Nov. 1. It was to be the penultimate event of the season.
It’s the seventh WRC race to be postponed or canceled.
Organizers say the uncertainty over large gatherings and international travel prompted the decision to cancel the Wales Rally GB for the first time since 1967.
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The mayor of Madrid says there are discussions for the Spanish capital to host the Champions League final this season amid the coronavirus pandemic.
José Luis Martínez-Almeida says the city would be prepared to host the final for the second straight year. He did not elaborate on the negotiations in his interview with 13tv.
A UEFA executive committee meeting on June 17 is expected to decide the new location for the final in August. It was originally scheduled to be played in Istanbul in May.
The country hosting the final is also expected to stage the quarterfinals and semifinals.
German city Frankfurt and Portuguese capital Lisbon are also likely contenders to host the final.
Spain was hard-hit by the pandemic but has been gradually lifting confinement restrictions.
Madrid hosted last year’s final when Liverpool beat Tottenham.
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