Sports World: Spain-Portugal friendly to have fans

MADRID • Around 20,000 spectators will be allowed to attend Spain's football friendly with Portugal in Madrid on June 4, the Spanish authorities said yesterday.

This will be the first professional game to be held in the Spanish capital with a live audience in more than a year, with fans barred from attending games the entire 2020-21 La Liga season.

Atletico Madrid's Wanda Metropolitano, which can hold close to 68, 000 people, will be at about 30 per cent capacity for the game, which will be the first of two friendlies Spain will play ahead of next month's Euro 2020, due to Covid-19 restrictions.

REUTERS

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Giro leader Bernal out of Tour de France

ROME • Giro d'Italia leader Egan Bernal yesterday effectively ruled out his participation at the Tour de France, which starts next month, and hinted he may also skip this summer's Tokyo Olympic Games in order to recover from lingering back pain.

The Colombian, who won the Tour in 2019, leads Italian Damiano Caruso by two minutes and 24 seconds with five stages of the Giro remaining. But Bernal ruled out any thoughts that he would attempt to become the first man to win the Giro-Tour double since Marco Pantani in 1998, saying Team Ineos Grenadiers already had a solid line-up, while flying to Tokyo "was difficult".

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

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PGA chief sorry for crowd trouble

KIAWAH ISLAND (South Carolina) • The Professional Golfers' Association of America has apologised after spectators overwhelmed security officials and swarmed around Phil Mickelson and Brooks Koepka on the final hole of the PGA Championship at Kiawah Island on Sunday.

When eventual champion Mickelson's approach shot found the green at the 18th, spectators raced to follow him up the fairway, enveloping him in the crowd and leaving the 50-year-old unnerved by the experience. Koepka, who is recovering from a dislocated kneecap, said he had been "dinged" a few times in the knee by the crowd.

REUTERS