Neuchâtel Xamax FCS does not count in the Football Challenge League. The Xamaxiens might not stand up to Schaffhausen. They were beaten 2-1 on German soil. After a goalless first half, the “red and black” footballers let go and conceded the first goal in the 48th minute. Development follows. -VPe
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German clubs in the 1st and 2nd Bundesliga have lost more than a billion euros in total since the start of the Covid pandemic. The League (DFL) announced it when presenting its annual report on Friday.
For the 2020-2021 season, ‘the overall revenue of the two championships fell by more than 750 million euros compared to the last season before the pandemic (2018/19): from 4.8 to 4.05 billion euros’, says the president of the DFL Donata Hopfen in her introduction. “The drop in turnover at the end of the first two seasons affected by Covid-19, 2019/20 and 2020/21, exceeds one billion euros”, she specifies.
This shortfall comes mainly from matches played behind closed doors or in front of a reduced audience, while all German stadiums have not yet regained their full capacity, two years following the start of the pandemic. In 2020/21, box office receipts have thus shrunk by around 95% compared to the last pre-pandemic season, from around 650 million euros in 2018/19 to only 35.5 million euros the season. last.
The situation has had a very strong impact on employment, with the number of professional football employees falling by 50%, to 26,183 employees once morest 52,786 in 2019/20. Indirect jobs (essentially match day services) fell by 80%. These figures relate to the 36 German clubs that are members of the DFL, 18 in the first division and 18 in the second.
Fees also lower
In addition, media rights and marketing revenues also fell last season. “We are facing an unprecedented situation,” said Ms. Hopfen. ‘The era of self-evident growth seems over’.
This observation, she suggests, might have repercussions on the development of German football, and possibly on the method of financing clubs, in a country which still prohibits a single investor from seizing the controlling majority. within a club.
/ ATS
Belinda Bencic (WTA 28) will not play the WTA 1000 final in Miami on Saturday. The Olympic Champion unfortunately did not go the distance in front of Naomi Osaka (WTA 77).
Belinda Bencic lost 3-6 6-3 6-4 to the Japanese following 2h06′ of the match. However, she believed for a long time to be able to sign a fourth victory in a row once morest Naomi Osaka following her successes in Indian Wells, Madrid and New York in 2019. She flew over the first set before offering herself two balls of 3- 1 in the third round. She overused them to lose four games in a row. Led 5-2, she had the merit of signing a last break to maintain the hope of a comeback.
Naomi Osaka finds the light in Florida in a tournament where she was simply playing for her place in the WTA top 100. In tears a little over two weeks ago following her elimination in the second round at Indian Wells once morest Veronika Kudermetova, Naomi Osaka became once more in the space of a few days this player in service – 18 aces once morest Belinda Bencic – and in the unstoppable forehand. She will be opposed on Saturday to the winner of the meeting between the future world No. 1 Iga Swiatek and the American Jessia Pegula (WTA 21).
/ ATS
Expensive oil: Joe Biden promises to “relieve households”
written by Alexandra Hartman Editor-in-Chief
US President Joe Biden promised Thursday to “relieve households” faced with rising gasoline prices. In particular, he announced an unprecedented use of the country’s strategic reserves.
Stressing that an increase in oil production would take ‘months’, he said during a speech at the White House that one million barrels would be pumped into the market every day for the next six months, ‘more of 180 million barrels.
‘This is a wartime transition,’ he said. This measure should allow ‘to increase the supply of oil until production accelerates later in the year’.
Price drop
“We will use the revenues from the sale of oil now to replenish strategic reserves,” detailed the American president, assuring that the United States would thus be “ready to face future emergencies”.
The prospect of this record spill of American black gold was already lowering prices on Thursday in London and New York. Mr Biden estimated that as a result of his decision, the price of gasoline “might drop quite significantly”, from 10 to 35 cents per gallon. The price at the pump in the United States, which exceeded its 2008 peak, is now well above 4 dollars per gallon (3.78 liters).
The White House, which the Republican opposition accuses of weighing down oil activity in the United States, also promises to “do everything (it) can” to encourage extraction.
Oil companies criticized
Joe Biden was very critical of oil companies on Thursday for “sitting on their record profits” instead of investing and producing more. “No American company should take advantage of the pandemic or the actions of Vladimir Putin to enrich itself at the expense of American families,” he said.
In particular, the president would like Congress to impose fines on companies that have the necessary permits and land, but do not operate them. Still with the idea of strengthening American energy independence, he will invoke the ‘Defense Production Act’, a text inherited from the Cold War which allows him to take economic decisions by decree, to encourage the development of green energies.
The Democratic president has been trying since the invasion of Ukraine to shift the blame for soaring inflation, including energy costs, to his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, even though the rise in prices had started before.
This rhetoric does not seem to convince Americans, however, as legislative elections approach in the fall which threaten to reduce Joe Biden to impotence for the rest of his mandate. His confidence rating barely exceeds 40%, according to various polls, a very low level.
Putin ‘isolated’
Regarding Ukraine, the White House tenant said he was “skeptical” of Russia’s announcements of a partial withdrawal of its troops to focus its offensive on the Donbass region in the east of the country. “So far, there is no evidence that he is withdrawing all these troops from kyiv,” he said.
Joe Biden also felt that Vladimir Putin ‘seemed to have isolated himself’. He also said he had “indications that (the Russian president) has dismissed or placed under house arrest some of his advisers”, while acknowledging that he does not have “irrefutable proof”.
Senior Pentagon official says Russian forces have begun withdrawal from Chernobyl (north) and ‘abandoned’ Gostomel military airport, northwest of kyiv, but ‘we continue to believe this is a repositioning ‘.
“We have absolutely no indication that these soldiers are returning home, or that they are permanently removed from the fighting,” added the official.
/ ATS