The Sport Thread

There's a simple solution to that. Kick that team out of the competition and give the opponents a bye to the next round.

I know that, but the problem is that falsifying testing results undermines the regime in force that permits the competition to proceed, let alone the health issues for the competitors. It’s more than the single match.

They would have to prove that it was a deliberate deception.

Not enough is known about the virus yet to be able to say conclusively that it is impossible for them to have legitimately tested negative at home and positively on arrival.

To kick a team out of a competition needs pretty conclusive proof, if the governing body doesn't want an expensive court case on its hands.

Now confirmed in schedule

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000m821

The Premier League fixtures have been released this morning. On first glance, and perhaps subjectively, I don't think Amazon have been quite as lucky as they were last season but they still have some good games.

BT have done quite well with the split gameweek this time because there are no games between any of the "big six" clubs for Sky to snap up, meaning at least one game featuring one of the top clubs will be below fifth pick. But on the downside, they're midweek this time because of the compressed season and lack of winter break, so there'll be less chance of unique timeslots.

Only other thing of note as far as TV goes is that we don't have picks for the first weekend yet, which we did have when the fixtures were announced last year.

Liverpool v Leeds the obvious first pick. I've always felt the first weekend should include the PL Champions vs the Championship Champions, so interesting to see it happen.

An additional twenty matches are to be televised across two new midweek matchdays, inserted to cover for the late start to the season. 12 of these will be shown by Sky, 6 by BT Sport and 2 by AZPV. No additional coverage however is to be given to compensate for the behind closed doors start to the season.

TV pick info for the first batch is coming out next week. https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11661/12052895/140-premier-league-games-to-be-shown-live-on-sky-sports-during-the-2020-21-season

Talking about a grudging 'gun to the forehead' compromise by the PL.

If some form of limited crowd (i.e season ticket member ballots which some clubs are talking about) will only be introduced after the start of October - then Project Restart and all games being shown live and somewhere, should be kept going until such time the beep of turnstyle is heard once more.

If that isn't possible - then all games played behind closed doors without a crowd, should be shown in full and on delay, starting no more than 15 minutes after the final whistle has blown.

A reminder tht after Lyon - Bayern last night more European action is available on the BBC Sport and BBC iPlayer Apps tonight with both Coleraine NIR v La Fiorita SMR and Glentoran NIR v HB Torshavn FRO both available FTA.

Quite a bit on this evening too, UEL final besides.

There's UWCL quarter finals on BT Sport and BBC Alba, and the start of Ligue 1, now sponsored by Uber Eats. They've got a bit of a new look, though I'm curious to see whether the new sponsor will still be delivering the match ball.

Some screenshots of the new Ligue 1 world feed on-screen graphics (click to enlarge)



A new channel in France takes over most of the rights (shared with Canal+) from today, with Telefoot showing Bordeaux vs Nantes as their first match.