Sports roundup

Florin Orban, 06.04.2020, 13:04

The International Football Federation
(FIFA) has
decided that players born in 1997
be eligible for the Olympic
Games in Tokyo. On
March 27th,
Romanian Football Federation
notified FIFA on the situation of our eligible players asking for
confirmation in the case of those
born in 1997, although next
year these will no longer be part of the under-23 age bracket as the
competition had to be postponed.

FIFA
responded in a communique quote: ‘Any
player born on or after January 1, 1997 will be able to play, plus
the three allocated over-aged players.’ unquote.
We
recall that the summer Olympics in Tokyo, which were supposed to
unfold between July 24th
and August 9th
this year have been postponed due to the COVID pandemic and are to
take place over July 23rd
and august 8th
2021.

The
game of Romania’s under-21 squad against Denmark in the
preliminaries of the European Under 21 Football Championship, which
was supposed to be played on March 31st
has been rescheduled for November. Under these circumstances, that
will be their last qualifying match for the European Championship.

The
other matches pitching our squad against Finland away, on September
4th,
and four days later also away against Malta will be taking place as
scheduled. On October 9th,
our young footballers will be up against Ukraine and take on Malta in
a home game on October 13th.
The match when Romania is supposed to take on Denmark has not been
scheduled yet.

Romania
is presently ranking second in Group 8th, five points less
than the team on the first place, Denmark. Starting EURO 2021, 16
football sides with players under 21 will be playing in the
competition’s final tournament.

Besides
the two host countries, Hungary and Slovenia, 9 group winners and the
best runner-up will qualify for the final tournament. The other 8
squads on the second position will be playing tie matches for the
other 4 available places.

The
BRD Bucharest Open women’s tennis tournament due to take place
between July 13th and 19th has been rescheduled
also due to the pandemic, the vice-president of the Romanian Tennis
Federation, George Cosac has told AGERPRESS news agency. BRD
Bucharest Open is the only WTA tournament hosted by Romania.

(translated
by bill)