Most international football might not be played until 2021 due to Coronavirus pandemic travel restrictions and the need to give club competitions the chance to resume, a FIFA vice president has said. Victor Montagliani, a Canadian, who is president of the governing body for North and Central America and the Caribbean, has been heading a FIFA working group formulating plans to deal with the implications of the world's biggest sport being largely shut down since last month.

FIFA already has called off matches between countries that were due to be played in March and June. Montagliani, CONCACAF's president, believes the September, October and November windows for national team matches could be scrapped. "I personally think that might be a bit of a challenge, not so much because of just the health issues around the world and the various degrees of preparedness, but also committing to international travel as soon as we come back," Montagliani told The Associated Press.

Montagliani

"I think that domestic football is a priority. September is still in the books, but I would garner to say that I'm not sure it's there on solid ground the way things are trending right now." The return of fans into packed stadiums could be dependent on a vaccine for the COVID-19 disease being ready—and that might not be until 2021. "If we get the green light to play a football match. I highly doubt that first football match will be with fans. I just can't see that. I think that would be taken a massive risk," he said in a video interview from Vancouver, British Columbia.

"I'm pretty sure it'll be a phased in approach, just like the rest of society is going to be is then in terms of us trying to get back to normal here."

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João Félix exploded onto the scene at Benfica in 2018 before a huge summer move to LaLiga with Atlético de Madrid. Here are five things you may not know about the Portuguese superstar...

1. His idol while growing up was Kaká
The similarities between the two are clear, both in playing style and appearance… brothers, anyone? But what isn’t so known is that Kaka was actually one of Joao Felix’s biggest idols growing up: the young Felix has spoken of watching YouTube video after YouTube video of the former World Player of the Year. The 20-year-old has also named Portuguese legend Rui Costa among his other inspirations while growing up.

2. Both his parents are teachers
Carlos and Carla, Joao’s parents, are both physical education teachers and he credits them with keeping him centred growing up. He has explained in interviews that his father would give him pep talks before matches and helped him stay focused during his teenage years; at the age of just 13 years he moved away from home to FC Porto’s academy, before later making the move to the capital with Benfica.

3. His first hat-trick in the Europa League was record-breaking
In April 2019, Joao hit the headlines across Europe with a stunning performance for Benfica in a Europa League match against Eintracht Frankfurt. By scoring three times in a 4-2 victory, he became the youngest ever player to score a hat-trick in the Europa League, doing so at the age of just 19 years and 152 days. That broke the previous record set by Marko Pjaca in 2014.

4. Diego Costa has taken him under his wing
From the start of pre-season, Joao and Diego Costa have forged a strong relationship. Costa is known to be a leader in the Atlético de Madrid dressing room and he quickly took the new arrival from Benfica under his wing, spending a lot of time with him and partnering with him in various drills. Both players are native Portuguese speakers, and this has helped the youngster settle in. Perhaps it’s no coincidence that it was Costa who assisted Joao’s first official goal for Atleti, against Eibar back in September.

5. His brother Hugo is also a highly rated prospect
Hugo Felix, João’s 16-year-old brother, is also highly rated and is doing well at Benfica’s academy. João was even able to celebrate goals with his brother last season, as Hugo was a ball boy at the Estádio da Luz on some matchdays. One particular goal that he scored against Vitória Setúbal ended with an emotional embrace between the siblings.

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From a childhood nickname to his world champion horse, these are some of the lesser-known facts about the Real Madrid captain and legend

1. His nickname as a child was Schuster
As a child, Sergio played up front and was nicknamed ‘Bernd Schuster’ after the great German goalscorer by the friends he played with on the grass outside his apartment block. He’d go on to play in defence throughout his career, at right-back and centre-back, but has maintained his brilliant goalscoring ability. Coincidentally, he was even coached by Schuster at Real Madrid between 2007 and 2008.

2. He’s only ever worn the number 4 shirt at Real Madrid, but never for Spain…
When Ramos arrived at Real Madrid, he was touted to fill the void left by the departing legend Fernando Hierro. Ramos wasn’t shy about taking on the challenge and adopted Hierro’s famous No.4 jersey from day one. That has been the number on his back during his entire decade-and-a-half career at the Santiago Bernabéu. Funnily enough though, Ramos picked a different number for when he plays with the Spanish national team: 15.

3. He has never scored for Spain at a major tournament
Sergio is Spain’s all-time record appearance holder (170) and has scored 21 goals for his country, a mightily impressive tally for a defender. Bizarrely enough, though, he’s never scored for Spain at a major tournament. Each of his 21 strikes has come in qualification rounds, in friendlies, or in the UEFA Nations League. Beyond penalty shootouts, he’s never scored at a World Cup, European Championship or even the Confederations Cup.

4. He didn’t win a Champions League knockout tie until the age of 25
Ramos has four Champions League titles to his name, winning the tournament in 2014, 2016, 2017 and 2018. He may undoubtedly be one of the all-time greats of the competition, but it’s easy to forget that he didn’t reach the competition’s quarter-final until the age of 25. He never played in the Champions League with Sevilla, then his first few years at Real Madrid coincided with a barren spell for the capital city club in which they were consistently knocked out in the first knock-out phase. Finally, in 2010/11 after the arrival of Jose Mourinho, Ramos made it to his first quarter-final, against Tottenham Hotspur. He’s certainly overcome that initial disappointment as the years have gone on.

5. His horse Yucatán de Ramos is a world champion
Like any true Andalusian, Sergio loves horses and has done since childhood. He owns stables near his hometown of Seville, and Yucatan de Ramos, his star horse, won a world championship at the 2018 Interntional PRE Horse Fair recognising it as the finest pure-bred Spanish horse in the world.

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The coronavirus outbreak has brought the world to a standstill and sporting events across the globe have either been cancelled or suspended. And former India skipper Sunil Gavaskar has said that with the way things are going, live sporting action may return only after another 4-5 months.

"The way things are going we might not be able to see any live sport for maybe 4-5 months. That's gonna be tough not just on the current players but also those who follow sport," Gavaskar told India Today.

"There are so many fans of different sports, for them to be able to only look at the old action after a time it gets boring, for nostalgia you can go back and see what happened earlier but actually you wanna see live sport be it on television or ground and for that not being able to be seen till September that's a worrying thing and I am pretty certain that the officials of all the sports are planning plan a, b, c to get over this period of uncertainty," Gavaskar explained.

While there have been talks of holding an IPL behind closed doors, Gavaskar said that it should be the last option.

"I think that's gonna be absolutely the last resort otherwise you know when you can't have absolutely anyone at the ground only then you should play without crowds.

"Every performer likes to perform in front of a crowd which appreciates the skills and temperament. Same in theatre. So i think it's not going to be easy on the performers as well. Players also want to do the high fives and hugs."

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