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London Marathon winner Wanjiru suspended for alleged doping violation

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  • Kenyan Daniel Wanjiru won the men’s race in 2017
  • Wanjiru charged with ‘use of prohibited substance’

Kenyan runner Daniel Wanjiru, winner of the 2017 London Marathon, has been provisionally suspended following an alleged anti-doping violation.
Wanjiru’s sanction was announced on Tuesday by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU), which confirmed he has been charged with “use of a prohibited substance [or] method”.
The 27-year-old was also victorious in the 2016 Amsterdam Marathon. Under anti-doping rules, Wanjiru cannot participate in any competition until a hearing has taken place into the allegation.
Wanjiru has finished eighth and 11th in the past two London marathons. Last year, Kenyans Asbel Kiprop, Cyrus Rutto and Abraham Kiptum were all given four-year bans, while Vincent Kipsegechi Yator received the same ban earlier this month.
Wilson Kipsang, the former marathon world record holder, was provisionally suspended in January for whereabouts failures and tampering with samples. Kipsang’s management company has denied the case involved doping, or tampering with the doping test.
The 2012 Olympic marathon bronze medallist made headlines earlier this month, when he was arrested for breaching a curfew in Kenya. Kipsang was one of 20 men who had locked themselves in a bar amid the country’s coronavirus shutdown.
Around 60 Kenyan athletes have been sanctioned for anti-doping rule violations in the past five years. Last month, Kenya said it planned to impose criminal penalties – including possible jail terms – on athletes caught doping.
(The Guardian)

Premier League clubs unite with calls to end 2019/20 season by June 30th

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A number of Premier League clubs are keen to establish a finishing date for the 2019/20 season
Several Premier League clubs are expressing a desire for the 2019/20 season to come to an end by June 30th, rather than delaying the finish indefinitely.
Football across the UK is currently suspended indefinitely due to the coronavirus pandemic and there is no clear plan for how the 2019/20 season can be completed, if at all.
However, while the Premier League and Football Association are keen to conclude the campaign by extending the season into the summer months, several Premier League clubs are uniting with a different stance.
The Mirror reports that at least nine clubs have had serious discussions amongst themselves and will come together to present their case to the Premier League on Friday, as they call for the season to be curtailed – rather than risk the “huge uncertainty and utter chaos” of allowing it to drag on for months beyond the summer.
Their proposal is to find a formula to finish the season as declaring the campaign null and void is off the table, with the plan to find a scenario that would allow Liverpool to be crowned champions, European spots to be decided and the relegation battle to be settled.
The concerns stem around the fact that numerous players see their contracts expire on June 30, while a number of clubs have commercial deals that are coming to a close on the same date.
FIFA have been discussing ways round the huge contract issue for players who become free agents but clubs fear it would not stand up to a legal challenge, while believe that could seriously affect the whole integrity of the League if clubs suddenly lose a number of their players.
The clubs are insisting that it is time for a serious debate to allow them to plan with some degree of certainty for next season, as there is currently huge question marks about the end date of the 2019/20 season, the start of the new campaign and how the summer transfer window fits in.
It is not only player contracts and transfers that are affected though, as the uncertainty is causing strain for ticket sales, sponsorship and TV payments – which many clubs rely on to keep above water.
They believe a deal could be brokered with TV companies to offset the cost of the current contract by showing more games next season or reaching a compromise with key broadcasters Sky and BT Sport.
(ECHO)

Arsenal players reject pay cut to aid club and demand wage deferral or bust

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  • Squad asked for 12.5% pay cut if Champions League not attained
  • Agent says solution is deferral with fixed reimbursement date

The standoff between Arsenal and their players over wage reductions risks sending an untimely ripple through waters that, after a turbulent first half of the season, seemed to have calmed since Mikel Arteta’s arrival in December.
Arsenal want their players to take a pay cut of 12.5%, which would apply if they did not qualify for the Champions League when football restarts, but that suggestion has been rejected by a significant number of the squad.
Talks are continuing and Arsenal were conciliatory in their summary of the situation presented to supporters via the club website on Wednesday.
“Over the past 10 days we have been in discussions with [the players] around the potential financial challenges ahead and how we are planning for those now,” it read. “These are productive and ongoing conversations about how our players might support their club in an appropriate way.”
A faint undertone could be detected, because the definitions of “appropriate” differ. The suspicion remains that everyone will eventually meet halfway.
The players’ position is that only a deferral will do and, while the Professional Footballers’ Association representative, Héctor Bellerín, is the conduit for negotiations with the club, the soundings being taken generally cement this stance.
One agent with high-profile representation in the Arsenal first team said his position is simple: the solution has to be a deferral and, furthermore, one without caveats relating to the Champions League. Another with interest in the negotiations has the same view, saying anything other than a request for deferral with a fixed reimbursement date for the full amount should simply not be deemed acceptable from a club in the Premier League.
Using a player’s agreed salary as – in effect – a bonus contingent on Champions League qualification was, he suggested, not an honest way to proceed, particularly given Arsenal’s chances of returning to that stage for the first time in four seasons remain slim.
There is clearly some way to go before the situation mirrors that at Brighton, a considerable distance down the top-flight food chain, where Glenn Murray said talks about wage reduction details were “bringing the club together even more”.
Arsenal have a wage bill of around £230m, a huge figure to sustain when European football of any kind may be off the table next season, and there is an urgency to mitigate a state of affairs that “puts our operating model under pressure”.
There remains a sense in some with links to the squad that footballers who already make plenty of charitable contributions should not be taking the hit for billionaire owners.
One of the representatives pointed out Arsenal’s academy has produced several players with first-team experience who are not yet regulars and could fetch eight-figure sums if agreements are formed now for when the transfer market grinds back into gear. That could make up a big chunk of the Covid-19 shortfall. It is an approach that has raised plenty of money before but the club see the potential for greater certainty in their current proposal.
The announcement on Wednesday that Arsenal’s executive team – comprising the chief executive, Vinai Venkatesham, the head of football, Raul Sanllehi, the technical director, Edu and 11 others – will waive more than a third of their earnings over the next year would appear to place the ball firmly in the players’ court. All the executive team are well remunerated but none earn close to a top-end Premier League salary.
The club also made it clear they are “not currently intending” to furlough staff and nor are they considering redundancies.
There is no desire from any party to be caught up in a public relations battle, although the emergence over the weekend of details about such tightly guarded discussions may not have aided the players on that front, given recent sensitivities about footballers’ responses to the crisis and the agreements publicly made at – for example – several Bundesliga clubs.
In any case, it is hard to tell where the balance of power lies. Arsenal do not want to risk alienating certain players to the extent that contract negotiations, which already look more challenging than ever, are compromised further.
Plenty of time had been spent trying to persuade Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang to entertain the possibility of an extended stay before the Covid-19 shutdown, while the club already knew they might not have it all their own way in securing Bukayo Saka – one of the Premier League season’s revelations – with Europe’s giants paying attention.
This is no time for relations to sour and, while fists are hardly flying, a long-running saga regarding pay cuts would risk leaving Arsenal even more vulnerable.
For now the handsomely paid Aubameyang and Saka, who is a year from the end of his first professional deal, operate in contrasting financial stratospheres. Whether cuts or deferrals are settled on it is hard to see how any squad with such a broad pay scale can reach a one-size-fits-all agreement and a slow burn of individual negotiations looks distinctly possible.
First of all, though, an amicable way out of the deadlock is required if Arsenal’s prospects are not to look even more blurred.
(The Guardian)

Belarus postpones women’s soccer but men’s league continues

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The start of the new women’s soccer season in Belarus has been delayed by fears that players have been exposed to the new coronavirus, but the men’s league shows no sign of stopping.
The women’s league was due to start its 2020 season on Thursday, but the Belarus soccer federation said Wednesday it is now “suspended until further notice.”
The federation added that “several” players had contact with “possible carriers” of the coronavirus.
Belarus is the only country in Europe still playing professional men’s soccer games with spectators in the stands. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has opposed strict lockdown measures and even played in an ice hockey game in front of spectators last month.
“There is no basis to close down the championship,” Sports and Tourism Minister Sergei Kovalchuk said of the men’s league in an interview broadcast Wednesday by the state Belarus 5 TV channel. He was speaking before the announcement that the women’s league was suspended.
Attendance for men’s league games in Belarus has plummeted in recent weeks as many fans chose to stay away. Fan boycotts have been organized at the majority of the 16 top-tier clubs.
“Nowadays, the number of fans has shrunk by more than 70 percent,” Kovalchuk said. “No one is forcing anyone to go to the stadium. You can go, or not go.”
The Belarusian league has attracted fans from other countries in lockdown and signed new foreign TV deals with broadcasters keen to show live sports.
Belarus has recorded 3,728 cases of the new coronavirus as of Wednesday, with 36 deaths.
(Fox Sport)