The completion of the 2019-20 Premier League season hangs in the balance, with football suspended everywhere in Europe - apart from Belarus - due to the global coronavirus pandemic. With the 2020-21 season scheduled to start on Saturday August 8th, time is running out to finish the current campaign. However in his column this morning, Ken Early suggests it might make more sense to do so, rather than start all over again. He writes: "Yet this logic also depends on the assumption that it will be possible to begin the 20-21 season on time. If distancing measures are still needed in August - and if the virus continues to circulate in the community, then why wouldn't they be? - then you reach a point where everything is such a huge mess that you might as well finish off the last season before figuring out when and how to kick off the next one."
Today sees the first in a series of pieces in which Irish Times journalists will be delving into the memory banks and discussing their favourite sporting moments. Seán Moran kicks things off by alluding to what a thankless task selecting just one moment is, he writes: "So much happens in a lifetime and sport conveniently lays itself out in neatly tagged years and seasons. Sorting out memories - never mind ranking them - is hard enough with all the digression and tumbling down rabbit-holes." Meanwhile Emmet Malone has looked back to the 2006 World Cup quarter-final between France and Brazil, and the magic of Zinedine Zidane in a 1-0 victory. "When Zidane pirouetted past three Brazilians in the first minute, however, you suddenly sensed that it might not matter what the defending champions tried. It felt like a Roy Keane against the Netherlands opening moment; different and yet the same and it suggested that this was to be another of the French midfielder's great days."
The summer Tests look set to be the next casualty in the rugby calendar, with July's summer tours increasingly likely to be called off. Andy Farrell's Ireland side are due to play two Tests in Australia, with Wales and Scotland in New Zealand, England in Japan and France in Argentina. However, IRFU chief executive Philip Browne believes a decision on whether or not the fixtures can go ahead will be made soon. He said: "It appears to be a long shot that the July tours will go ahead but we won't be making that decision. That decision will be made for us by the public health authorities. It's got to be made in the next couple of weeks. They can't push it out much further than that, I would imagine. Certainly by the end of April we'd need to have some clarity."
Harry Kane has admitted he could look for a move away from Tottenham Hotspur, if he feels his boyhood club aren't 'progressing'. Speaking in an Instagram Live chat, he said: "I love Spurs, I'll always love Spurs but I've always said if I don't feel we're progressing as a team or going in the right direction, I'm not someone to stay there for the sake of it."
And former Roscommon manager John Tobin has paid tribute to Conor Connelly, who died suddenly aged 44 on Saturday. Connelly helped inspire Roscommon to the Connacht SFC title in 2001.
