Japanese football’s J-League is to resume first division matches on July 4, with the second and third divisions starting on June 27. Matches will be played behind closed doors. The league is expected to test 2,400 players, staff and match officials for Covid-19 before the restart – Kyodo News
Sportswear firms Nike and Adidas have published messages appealing for solidarity against racism, amid the protests in the US over the death of George Floyd. In a rare move, Adidas shared on social media a video created by Nike in response to the protests- News.com.au
Ferrari is creating a new Asia-Pacific race driver development programme based in Sydney. The programme will be based at the Motorsport Australia Centre of Excellence at Sydney Motorsport Park – Motorsport Australia
Roger Federer was the world’s highest-paid male athlete in 2019, taking home $106.3m (€95m), according to Forbes’ annual list – Forbes
A planned A$810m ($530m/€485m) upgrade of Sydney’s Olympic Stadium has been abandoned due to the Covid-19 crisis. The New South Wales government is to instead put the funds towards infrastructure projects aimed at alleviating growing unemployment due to the pandemic – ABC
South Korean baseball’s KBO league last week put on hold plans to re-introduce fans to stadiums, as the national government tightened movement restrictions in response to a spike in Covid-19 cases – Yonhap
The T20 Cricket World Cup in Australia is at “very high risk” of not going ahead as scheduled in October and November, Cricket Australia’s chief executive Kevin Roberts has said. The International Cricket Council last week deferred until June 10 a decision whether to go ahead with the tournament on-schedule. The delay of the decision was said to be due to the leaking to the media of a letter from CA to the ICC about the possibility of Australia hosting the tournament next year instead – ESPN cricinfo
Cricket West Indies is halving salaries for players and staff in response to the Covid-19 downturn. CWI has approved in principle a test series in England in July – Channel News Asia/Reuters
Sri Lankan cricketers are restarting training today for the first time since the Covid-19 shutdown – Hindustan Times
English football’s Championship has set a provisional date to resume matches on June 20. Clubs are to return to full contact training this week – Straits Times/Reuters
The netball quad-series between Australia, New Zealand and England that was scheduled for September has been cancelled. The Constellation Cup series between Australian and New Zealand is still planned to go ahead later this year – New Zealand Herald
Sport, like “every sector of society”, was “woefully unprepared” for Covid-19, Jeff Latch, chief executive of New Zealand pay-television operator Spark Sport, has said. Speaking to Women In Sport Aotearoa’s ‘Leadership in Lockdown’ series, Latch said: “The lack of cash in the whole ecosystem when live sports stopped has been the fundamental thing that has caused massive challenges for all the sports organisations and broadcasters around the world.” – Channel News Asia/Reuters
