A hockey team and a soccer club in Russia face being removed from their leagues after government financial support was diverted to fight the coronavirus
The Latest on the effects of the coronavirus outbreak on sports around the world:
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A hockey team and a soccer club in Russia face being removed from their leagues after government financial support was diverted to fight the coronavirus.
The sports ministry in the far eastern region of Primorsky Krai says it sees no point in funding player contracts for another season if it’s not clear when competitions will resume. It wants the Admiral Vladivostok hockey club to drop out of the Kontinental Hockey League and the Luch Vladivostok soccer team to drop down two divisions into the amateur leagues.
The ministry says regional funding earmarked for professional sports will instead go into an anti-coronavirus fund.
Many Russian sports team rely heavily on regional governments and state-owned companies for much of their funding. Primorsky Krai is the first region to impose such drastic cuts.
All major sporting events in Russia are currently suspended.
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The Olympic flame will be on display until the end of April in Japan‘s northeastern prefecture of Fukushima.
Tokyo Olympic and prefecture officials held an official “handover ceremony”on Wednesday at the J-Village National Training Center in Fukushima.
The public will have limited access to view the flame, and organizers hope to limit the crowd size because of restrictions in place for the coronavirus.
The flame arrived in Japan from Greece on March 20 and the torch relay was to have started last week from Fukushima. The flame has remained in the prefecture with Wednesday’s event merely ceremonial.
The Fukushima prefecture is the region of Japan that was devastated in 2011 by an earthquake, tsunami, and the subsequent meltdown of three nuclear reactors.
Olympic officials have postponed the Tokyo Games until next year with the opening now set for July 23, 2021.
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