Two top-flight rugby competitions have been suspended while a Premier League boss predicts a breakaway Super League comprising only the richest football clubs as sport in Europe continues to be struck hard by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The European Champions Cup and Challenge Cup rugby competitions have been temporarily suspended after the French government recommended that games against British clubs be postponed as they constituted too great a public health risk.
Meanwhile, Wolverhampton Wanderers manager Nuno Espirito Santo believes if the EPL is halted again due to the pandemic, only Europe’s richest teams will be able to survive and may form a league of their own.
“If we stop everything will change. A new football will come,” Espirito Santo said.
“We will probably have a Super League, probably other competitions. It’ll be a matter of which clubs will survive. It’s a tough decision to make.
The EPL said on Monday that 36 people tested positive for Covid-19 in two rounds of tests last week.
England is currently under a new national lockdown due to rising cases caused by a new variant of the virus, but the EPL has an exemption to continue.
In Scotland, Celtic will be without 14 players for their Premiership match against Hibernian on Tuesday (NZ time) after defender Christopher Jullien tested positive for the coronavirus upon the squad’s return from a training camp in Dubai.
Thirteen of Jullien’s teammates have been deemed as close contacts and must also isolate, the defending champions said.
The Scottish Football Association has suspended the professional game below the top two divisions for three weeks.
Meanwhile, Switzerland’s famous ski race was cancelled, with the blame partly placed on tourists from Britain causing a rise in the number of Covid-19 cases.
Wengen was to host three races in the 91st meeting on the iconic Lauberhorn mountain – a men’s World Cup fixture since the circuit started in 1967.