The French Open could be postponed because of a surge in coronavirus cases in France, the country’s sports minister Roxana Maracineanu says.

France entered a third nationwide lockdown on Saturday, which president Emmanuel Macron said he expected to end in mid-May.

The Grand Slam is due to take place at Roland Garros from 23 May to 6 June, with qualifying the week before.

In 2020, it was postponed to the autumn because of the coronavirus pandemic.

“We are in discussion with [the French Tennis Federation] to see if we should change the date to coincide with a possible resumption of all sports and major events,” Maracineanu told France Info radio.

“Today, although high-level sport has been preserved, we try to limit the risks of clusters, of spreading the virus within professional sports.”

The EFL have confirmed the Carabao Cup final has been selected as one of the UK government’s trial events to test the return of fans to stadiums.

It was revealed late in March that a handful of events for various different sports, including the FA Cup semi-final between Southampton and Leicester, will be allowed to welcome a small number of fans to give health officials a better idea of how plausible a return to stadiums is.

The next event to be included in the Events Research Programme is the Carabao Cup final between Manchester City and Tottenham, which the EFL confirmed on their official website will now be played in front of 8,000 fans.

A percentage of those 8,000 tickets will be offered up to both clubs’ fan base, with the remaining seats given to local residents and NHS staff.

“The Carabao Cup is a prized asset of the EFL, a great competition for clubs to win and always a fantastic occasion so we are absolutely delighted to see supporters back for the 2021 Final, in what will hopefully be another important milestone along the way to a full return of fans,” EFL chairman Rick Parry.

“Football has lots of expertise in crowd management so we welcome the opportunity to support the Government in its Events Research Programme and will also take great pride in hosting NHS staff at the final to whom we owe so much for their momentous efforts throughout the pandemic.

“The EFL’s broad objective has always been to seek fans return to stadia as soon as it is safe to do so and we welcome the opportunity to play our part working collaboratively with Wembley Stadium, local authorities and specialists overseeing the research programme.

“These collective efforts will be crucial as we seek a return for fans of EFL clubs for the Play-Offs and start of the 2021/22 season, so that our members can plan with confidence.cup-final-to-host-8000-fans-at-wembley

Culture secretary Oliver Dowden added: “Our sports stars and great performers need us to find ways to get bums back on seats safely. This science-led pilot programme will be the springboard in getting the buzz back of live performance. We’ve supported the sports and arts with unprecedented sums, but it’s now time to make that Great British Summer of live events a reality.”

The Carabao Cup was initially scheduled for February but was pushed back to April 25 in the hope that the game could be played in front of fans, and while the EFL would have preferred a bigger crowd, this decision will be seen as a positive result by all.

Italian teenager Jannick Sinner reached his first ATP Masters 1000 final with a stunning victory at the Miami Open.

The 19-year-old world number 31 recovered from a break down in the final set to beat Spanish seventh seed Roberto Bautista Agut 5-7 6-4 6-4.

He faces Poland’s Hubert Hurkacz in Sunday’s final, after he beat Russian fourth seed Andrey Rublev 6-3 6-4.

“It sounds incredible to reach the final. I am very happy,” said French Open quarter-finalist Sinner.

“At the beginning, we were both a bit tight but it was windy today so I just tried to serve better, move him a bit more and mix it up – that was the key.”

The pair met last month in Dubai, with Sinner winning in three sets.

The 1000 events are the highest level of Masters tournaments on the ATP Tour.

He becomes the second-youngest Miami Open finalist after Rafael Nadal in 2005 and will be chasing his third career ATP title after winning last year in Sofia and an Australian Open warm-up tournament in Melbourne.

Nigeria’s national football team, the Super Eagles, who like the Biblical Noah’s weary dove that soared the earth around but not finding a resting place above and had to return to the Ark, have also returned to their traditional ground, Lagos.

President of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) Amaju Pinnick on Thursday, confirmed Lagos as the permanent home ground of Super Eagles.

The city of aquatic splendour has been the home ground of the national team since their first home game of 20 October 1951 when they thrashed Ghana (then Gold Coast) 5-0 at the Association Ground, the present day Mobolaji Johnson Arena at Onikan.

But since the Super Eagles’ 1-0 defeat of Zambia in a drab Africa Cup of Nations qualifying match of 13 January 2001, the Super Eagles became nomadic, searching endlessly, a comfortable nest.

Before then, Lagos, with its vociferous crowd and immense football supporter ship, has been a slaughter slab for many visiting African teams.

Even the legendary Samuel Eto’o in an interview recalled his goals against Nigeria at the 2000 Africa Cup of Nations, claiming that to score against Nigeria at the ‘sacred’ Surulere ground was not a mean achievement.

Little wonder the excitement that followed the return of Super Eagles to Lagos in the last match day of the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers.

It was aptly dubbed: ‘Football Returns Home’. It now appears to have marked the end of nomadic nature the team assumed having to play home matches in Calabar, Port Harcourt, Asaba, Benin and Kaduna among others, abandoning the tradition of great team like England who have Wembley as their traditional home ground.

The Super Eagles will begin the qualifying campaign for one of the five African slots to the next FIFA World Cup in Qatar this June and this means that Teslim Balogun Stadium which played host to the 3-0 drubbing of Lesotho will stage the opening match against Lone Star of Liberia.

Other teams in Group C are Central African Republic and Cape Verde.

“Yes our return to Lagos is good for the players and the NFF as well going by logistics and within the next 10 days, we will conclude the ‘Memorandum of Understanding with Lagos State Government and this will lay to rest the idea of movement around the country”, This Day quoted Pinnick as saying.

“The players and the coaching crew are pleased with the excellent football pitch and this alone is a major factor and when we look at other logistics we need to put in place before any international match, Lagos venue comes handy.

“We want to have a hitch free qualification matches and that is not to take away the fact that Akwa Ibom, Rivers, Delta, Kano, Edo, Kaduna and Cross River that have hosted the team before now have no place in the history of the success of Super Eagles,” he explained.

The captain’s armband which Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo threw away angrily during a World Cup qualifier against Serbia was bought by a betting company at a charity auction to help fund life-saving surgery for a six-month-old baby.

Serbia’s Mozzart said in a statement on Friday (April 2) that it paid 7.5 million dinars (S$100,000) for the armband picked up by a fireman at Red Star’s Rajko Mitic stadium.

We decided to take part in the auction because of its humanitarian nature,” Mozzart said.

“The objective was to aid toddler Gavrilo Djurdjevic as well as to raise awareness that we need to stand united in taking this kind of action.”

Six-month-old Gavrilo Djurdjevic is suffering from spinal atrophy and his mother Nevena said the family had received donations of around €500,000 (S$790,000) so far.

Ronaldo stormed off the pitch seconds before the final whistle in Serbia’s 2-2 home draw with Portugal on Saturday and threw the armband away when he was denied a clear stoppage-time winner in the 2-2 draw.

-Reuters

Finally, the 20th National Sports Festival tagged ‘Edo 2020’ is seeing the light of the day, after months of delay and anguish by sportsmen and women who had girded their loins but were left high and dry by the Sports Ministry.

The Vice-President Professor Yemi Osinbajo is expected to officially declare the Games open on April 6, perhaps that is the only time athletes and officials would be assured Edo 2020 will run its full course. Until lately, there were still doubts over the Games starting as scheduled as purveyors of unverified information, rumour-mongers had falsely spread information about another possible postponement.

Who could blame them? The Sports Ministry, the Presidential Task Force on Covid’19 and the Edo State government have had to roll the dice on whether to commence the sports fiesta or not. ‘Edo 2020’ was to hold March 2020, with just a week to go the Sports Minister, Sunday Dare and PTF citing worldwide coronavirus pandemic pulled the plug on the events. It was quite understandable then because sports around the globe took a major hit.

However, when the sporting world gradually began to open arenas to contests, Nigerian sports officials coming under intense criticism by athletes fixed a new date for December 2020. All the major actors were happy with the decision, but their joy was short-lived when the PTF again raised the red flag. February 2021 was then proposed, but the Edo State government cried foul. According to the Edo State deputy governor, Philip Shaibu who is the chairman of the Local Organising Committee, the host government was not consulted; and as if that was not enough, the State governor, Godwin Obaseki dropped a bombshell. “Edo has no money to host.”

But now it seems the stars have aligned for the Festival to begin and athletes are warming up to storm their various venues for the events, some of which have already begun.

“We have nowhere to go but forward with the National Sports Festival,” said Yusuf Alli, former African long jump champion and current national record holder since1987.

“Edo is ready to host and the athletes who have been training for long are ready to compete.

But it remains to be seen how many states of the federation would be represented in the NSF. Quite a number have complained of lack of funds and no adequate preparations. This is just as mega sports States like Delta, Rivers, Lagos, Edo are set for their usual rivalry. They would be going into the Festival without their foreign-based legions. The timing of the Festival has made it almost certain that they are going to give it a miss, some of the athletes are ‘school-tied’ and others are focused on training for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.

“We should expect keen competition at Edo 2020,” said former sprinter and coach Emmanuel Bamise. This is because all athletes have been training not just for the Festival but for other competitions.”

The National Sports Festival regarded as Nigeria’s mini Olympics began in 1973 in Lagos. It is a franchise of the Federal government and organised by the Sports Ministry. A tool with which the government had hoped to foster national unity and promote sports development in the country.