Live sport is returning to our screens, even though the pandemic is far from over. Patrick gearey speaks to those at the centre of project restart. For 100 days, football was frozen. This was an earlier thaw than some thought possible. The day the English Premier League returned, 1,115 new cases of coronavirus were reported in the uk. So, how had sport re emerged amid a pandemic . What are the risks and in the strange echoey bubble sport now sits in, what on earth comes next . London, on the morning of monday 9 march. The headlines are dominated by talk of supermarket rationing and the coming pandemic. Andthe culture secretary is being asked if sport can go on much longer. At this stage, we are not in the territory of cancelling or postponing events and i dont expect that to be the case after today. Those words aged within the week. The cheltenham festival, liverpool versus Atletico Madrid would be the final scenes of sport as we knew it. Tonights premier league game between Manchester City and arsenal has been called off. Arsenal have just confirmed that head coach, mikael arteta, has tested positive for covid 19. Overnight chelsea revealed their squad is self isolating after their winger tested positive for the virus. I had a virus for the past couple of days. All english and scottish football matches are suspended because of the impact of coronavirus. The masters is off, as is englands cricket tour. A major move, formula 1 season is set to be suspended. The latest thing to go, the london marathon. The final round of the six nations fixtures are a complete write off. What you have seen over the past 48 hours or so, in effect, is the collapse of the global sporting calendar. The dominoes fell, the Tour De France pushed back. Wimbledon cancelled. The mens european football championship delayed one year. And biggest of all, the 2020 tokyo 0lympic and Paralympic Games postponed until 2021. The chaotic way sport left the stage gave few clues as to its return, but after weeks of lockdown, the first socially distanced steps back were on the wide open spaces of golf courses. Recreational golf, as well as angling and singles tennis were permitted as part of the first loosening of restrictions. A more ambitious path was being plotted by those in power. It was known as project restart. A series of talks aimed at getting professional sport under way, despite the still present pandemic. 0n the 30th of may, there was a big announcement. Today really is a significant milestone. We wont be sitting in the stands for a while and things will be very different to what were used to, but live sport will be back on our screens next week. The british sporting recovery has begun. Horse racing in england was among the first out of the stalls, here experience of controlling equine disease was useful. And though the stands remained empty, the sport could resume. We put a good system in place, obviously we have markers on the floor. We are riding with masks. As you know, it is not a contact sport, so we are very much within the guidelines and of course we will be in a fresh open air. The system has been tried in australia, america, and well before us, so there are no problems. So i am very positive that we can do our sport safely. In the more claustrophobic world of contact sport, things are trickier. So, what do we know about the risks . Well, scientists agree there is less of a risk of catching coronavirus outdoors, compared with indoors. You are at highest risk when you are within 2m of an infected person for 15 minutes or more. And, the disease is thought to be mainly spread by droplets from coughing or sneezing. But the virus was so new, that much remains unknown and there is little agreement on whether or not it can be there is little agreement on whether or not it can be spread by the aerosol we exhale when we breathe. This model from a company that makes engineering simulations shows how running behind someone could be risky. Thats pretty much unavoidable in many sports. There have been cases associated, for example, it is not a sport, but somewhere where people are forced to breathe and that is in singing, in choirs. We know that there have been cases where it looked like the actual act of being in a choir and singing quite loudly helps the virus spread, so i think anything which increases the amount of droplets that you potentially produce as you breathe will increase the risk of the virus transmitting, so i think top, elite athletes, running around a football pitch for 90 minutes a reasonable is amount, if one of them is infected, that they could be breathing out reasonable amounts of virus. There are also concerns about set pieces where players come together, as well as inadvertent spitting and tackles. Communal areas like changing rooms and tunnels could pose problems, especially when the official advice in the uk suggests that Coronavirus Infection levels may still be high. Professor peter 0penshaw is on the governments sage advisory committee. The degrees to which social distancing can be maintained obviously varies a lot from the sport to the sport. Direct Contact Sports are in a different class. And i cannot see how that can be done in safety, except with a lot of monitoring, a lot of continuous testing and isolation if anyone is found to be infected. But it really is very very different from sport as we know it. This strange and expensive new world was not one all could enter. In scotland, the football season was curtailed, not universally popular and nor the decision to end the seasons in most womens sports. The early finish of the Womens Super League handed the trophy to chelsea, the expense of the still chasing Manchester City. Amid the frustration, the chance perhaps to take stock. For me personally it was a tough one. I like to see football as football, not men and womens football, so it would be nice to carry on, but i also understand that womens football hasnt got the funding that the men have got and we arent supported as well as that. I think this has given us a time now to ensure that we have a rething, we have a restructure, we make sure women spofts is better coming out of pandemic than it was going into it, and especially with football, there was so much uncertainty pre pandemic. Elsewhere, team sport was restarted. Germany, which had suffered less from coronavirus than many other european countries, allowed the bundesliga to return mid may. The stands empty, the players regularly tested, football and in particular the English Premier League, had a template. It was a confidence building prove point that the germans can get there. They can put their league back, back on the pitch and back on television, and we are interested to see it. They have been through all of the steps that we are currently going through. They have dealt with all of the issues weve been going through. They have managed to convince themselves that it is right to go back, it is safe to go back. And so from that perspective, we can learn from them. The premier leagues approach was shadowed by the second tier championship. It meant bringing things together gradually. Players went from exercising on their own to small groups, to contact training and eventually backed action. Their lives now involve daily Temperature Checking and twice weekly coronavirus testing. Initially, not everyone was keen. Watfords troy deeney and and Chelseas Ngolo Kante were among those who stayed away from training, but they came back. And the relatively low number of positive cases added to the momentum. Still, british Coronavirus Infection rates remain higher than most of europe, and there is a lag between taking the test and getting the results, which might give the virus a window of opportunity. I think speaking as a scientist, it seems to me very risky indeed. Its possible that by having a lot of testing, that the risks could have been minimised, but that involves a lot of social disruption to the lives of those involved in sports and also makes future fixtures uncertain because we can never anticipate when somebody is going to test positive and then the whole team potentially would have to be locked down. If there were a situation where multiple players and multiple clubs contracted, we would have to take stock of that situation. But, what were trying to create is a very safe system where that is very unlikely to occur. Even before the first game, three arsenal players were unable to train after one returned positive. Proof, perhaps, both of the system working and its potential for disruption. But, by mid june, the premier league could celebrate a goal which had been unabated. Were back. Football in england re emerged, one team at a time, through tunnels, and even car parks into cavernous empty stadiums. Every game on tv, 33 of them free to air. Passion measured in pixels. Fans there in spirit, sometimes in outline, but never in person. This was, for many people, wonderful relief, the long awaited reward and at the same time, slightly hollow. We miss the people. Its not the same. Its nice because its football but. It was very strange. Something i probably wont get used to or enjoy. You need the fans, football needs the fans. But we understand why were doing at the moment. Its a lot harder to play without fans than it is with fans. A lot of us thrive off the fans, especially our fans are so good for us. Its difficult. Liverpool fans could accept difficult. Theyd waited 30 years, including the past few agonising months. Now the title was finally theirs. The celebrations for supporters and players are mostly held privately, separately. But some spilled onto the streets. Partying, trumping social distancing, at these times spontaneous collective joy cannot be part of the plan. 0n the other side of the world, another planet altogether. These are fans in new zealand getting ready to watch rugby together, in a stadium. The reward for purging the virus from their shores. These islands of normality were the exception. Back in the uk, rugby remained a distance away. This is a sport where, if you are avoiding close contact, you are probably not doing it right. So, we decided to find out how much risk that is. We chose to look at the scrum. One of sports most claustrophobic scenarios and got experts in buildings simulations to build us a scrum in it cough. The results were surprising. I was convinced that this guy would be contaminating everyone. I was wrong. The results show, as expected, that when these people are in the scrum, all the droplets that he can exhale will be falling on the ground. We even consider this kind of lateral wind, to see whether this wind would be blowing the droplets onto the faces of other people, but we see that with the wind, the droplets would be moved further away. This is a model based on physics and not made by experts and viruses, but it shows that potentially disease carrying droplets missing the faces of the other players in the scrum. It models a backrow player coughing, but some thought to be similarfor second rows. Front rows may face a higher risk but the breeze blowing through the middle of the scrum may mitigate that. I think if you spoke to the general public what they will think is a high risk area, they would say the scrum, because of the proximity. Because of the contact involved. And that is why the modelling is very interesting, because even though they are in the same headspace, but they have almost move beyond each other and are breathing in a different direction. That kind of modelling is adding a really, really interesting perspective to how we look at this and does in fact coincide with some of the thinking that we had already. The highest risk scenario models was when the scrum half placing the ball in coughs. The risk is higher the longer that takes. To see the visuals of what a scrum half coughing could do to the whole scrum is quite scary really. I think maybe, obviously everybody would be all definitely was a shock to see that we are more at risk than somebody who is right in the middle of it, a hooker, for example. The Research Points to that if a situation where two players heads are facing each other are riskiest. Something which tallies with world rugbys own findings. Unlike many other sports, they are suggesting altering the way the game is played during the fan or pandemic, by offering possible law changes to make it safer. They want fewer reset scrums, reducing the amount of time both packs facing each other at close quarters waiting to engage. They also want to encourage players to tackle lower, alongside the usual regular testing and symptom checking. Weve been focusing our attention on means of cutting out the means of introduction of an affected person to the group. We are also looking at, if there is someone who is infected does enter the group, how can we make it safer . What we looked at were, the scenarios we gave were, not only in contact, but face to face. The real risk of the disease is the risk its in the population. Any measures that we put in will actually make their group of players safer than they would be if, for example, they went to have a coffee. The measures are optional and most likely to be used as a recreational level, initially. They havent been taken up by the elite leagues in britain and ireland at the moment. But with rugby league considering its own law changes, including abolishing scrums and reducing contact time, perhaps there is momentum for change. Cricket of course is played at a more respectful distance, but the winter covers havent come off from when the sport was suspended. Financially crucial summer test matches were in the balance. The main problem we have a cricket is that it is a five day game, with a lot of setting up and People Living on site, being away from home. So, to work back from that, we essentially had to secure the well being of players and staff and ensure that virus couldnt get onto site. The england and Wales Cricket board solution was to build fortresses, to seal off the ground with three tests against the west indies would be played and place the players in their own protected world. This was biosecure cricket. The firstjob, persuading the visiting west indies team it would be safe. They were flown in by a chartered jet and spirited into emirates 0ld trafford in manchester. This would become their home. Their real home, in the caribbean, had seen relatively low levels of coronavirus. So this was some sacrifice. If you put yourself in the position of a Health Care Worker or someone who has worked in the front lines during this whole pandemic. They have not had the opportunity to sit back at home and run from the virus, theyve had to deal with it full on. We are fortunate that we havent been in that position, but, having said that, at some point, we have to make an effort to get back to some kind of normality. A lot of people are crying out for cricket and its not the case that we want to be the guinea pigs. So how do you make the Cricket Ground biosecure . You need a venue with lots of space in separate buildings. The perimeter is then sealed. Everyone inside has to pass a coronavirus test within the past five days. Hotels on site are essential. Each team will stay on separate floors. They will form an inner zone with access to the pitch and key areas. Others, including media, ground staff and contractors, will be on the outer zone. They will be based on other parts of the ground. They wont be able to share lifts or walkways with the players and there will be strictly controlled routes around the ground. It felt a bit like a movie. Where everything was like a sci fi movie, i guess. People with masks on everywhere and ppe. We obviously had to be checked in a temperature tent is so clean. The environment obviously, the organisers have done a greatjob in marking the plans, the lifts, not even keys. Having constant access to hand gels and Hand Sanitisers and things. So, theyve done a greatjob. We have effectively created a situation where everyone on that site was tested, everybody has a Temperature Check and check of symptoms. So the chance of someone being positive on the site is reduced as far as we can go. So we think its safer than going to sainsburys or other supermarket brands. This all comes at a cost, though. The two venues chosen, the ageas bowl in southampton and emirates old trafford were being asked to host a strange upside down summer. Like if these matches dont happen behind closed doors, you lose jobs across cricket. So the normal rules about what you wouldnt spend on staging a test match out of the window because this comes about saving the game the industry as a whole. The bill will be beyond most, but what if you strip cricket back to its essence . The village green, the local rep. Tom hopes that the lifting of restrictions in the uk will allow play to resume, but for now it seems that even though the pubs will open, the innings wont. In cricket, everybody understands that the ball is a natural vector of the disease and, potentially, at any rate, we have been round it many times with our scientific friends. At the moment, were still on ways to make cricket more covid secure. The cricket medical experts disagree. If you play cricket as a recreational event, where you turn up, you are already changed, no dressing room, outdoor seating. Its a really safe sport. And so we are trying to push the domestic and recreational game back as quickly as we can with all the parameters that need to go into place. If this test summit is successful, we might see bio security exported to other big events in tennis, golf and formula 1. But can it work of the open the doors . We spoke to one expert who thinks it is possible to have biosecurity with fans in the stands. But going to the match will be a different experience. I think it is manageable behind closed doors for most sports. The challenge comes when you are going to get thousands of people, when we start to open up to audiences, you will see a huge amount of cashless transactions, you will only be able to use tap and go. You might be requested to turn up at the venue in a timeslot. So, there is not too much loitering around. But, what we have to be careful of is what the experiences, people want to go and see sport, they might be in a venue a lot longer than expected to. In all of this, though, there is a danger of going too far too fast. The world number one Novak Djokovic is the latest player to test positive for coronavirus, just days after hosting a number of players at an exhibition event in croatia. Djokovic had been playing in his own tournament. The adria tour. Fellow players had been mixing off court as well. Three of them tested positive and djokovic admitted it was all too soon. So, what happens to athletes when they catch coronavirus . It usually takes a lot to stop wolves Rugby League Player tom lynam. Commentator he gets the try, remarkable but he was hit hard by the disease in april. 0n the first day, i couldnt do anything. Emptying the dishwasher was too much of a daunting task. You just felt that run down and then as the days go by, you start to feel better, but its a good two weeks until, you know, you are anything near back to normal. I think i tried doing a little run in the second week of it, it was pointless. I couldnt get my breath. I couldnt run, effectively. You know what its like when youre ill . Every time your level of performance is reduced dramatically. But a massive disadvantage if you get it. Especially if you get it badly, it could take five or six weeks to fully recover. Tom says he is back to normal now and most athletes wont suffer seriously from coronavirus. Some dont even show symptoms. But we do know that sportspeople are more susceptible to respiratory infections. And, training hard perhaps to regain match fitness might actually harm the immune system compared to doing a normal amount of exercise. Even a moderate bout of this virus could seriously disrupt training programmes. The recommendations that you have at least 10 days of rest. Yet, in cases of moderate illness, if you have been bedbound or had to attend hospital, actually, it may well be that it is two or three weeks of recommendation for you returning to exercise and when you do return, actually, it is a very graded and gradual response back into exercise, with close scrutiny of how that recovery is going. There is increasing evidence that coronavirus affects the body more extensively than first thought. Scientists working with a Charity Cardiac Risk in the young, have recommended additional heart screenings if an athlete has suffered from the virus for more than a week or been kept bedbound by it. And, the Global Trade Union for sports and women once those at risk to have a right to stay in the sidelines for now. They cant be obliged to work in an environment where there is a reasonable belief that it could be unsafe, and this is one of those environments. One of the issues therefore that is being looked at in that context is that certain players should have the right to opt out of returning to play and to be entitled to do so without suffering any prejudice or disadvantage. Commenatator great shot. For some, the decision to go back to action must be taken with particular care. David smith has Cerebral Palsy and has won world and pa ralympic titles. He was aiming for a third gold in tokyo but doesnt know when he can return to competition. Ive been trying to be quite pragmatic about it. We have to be sensible and follow the advice as best as possible. Obviously you cant eliminate all risks and we dont really want to be stuck indoors the rest of our lives either. So there has to be a point to you kind of go, balance of probability, now is the time. But again, i dont think were there yet though. Whatever the effort and innovation, so much for so many in sport depends on things outside most people cant control. Next yea rs party in tokyo sits over the horizon. Depending on science and medicine are bouncing around the world. 0ne scientist who advises the British Government on this new virus is doubtful we will reach the start line in time. I think it would be optimistic to think that a vaccine is going to be available at that scale next summer. Not this summer, the summer after. And until a reasonable proportion of the population has been vaccinated, is is only at that time that we can anticipate that we would be able to return to these wonderful mass events that we so enjoyed and took for granted for many years. The World Health Organization wants sport all over the planets to establish a common way of assessing risk. They are working with the organisers in tokyo, they are happy to measure and prepare. But less keen to predict. We are not in a position to forecast. It will depend on what is the status of the pandemic. And what are the solutions, therapeutic, it will depend on how many athletes can travel from where and how it will be prepared for. But much of sport has proven itself flexible, able to change rules, training routines and ways of life. Whatever happens next might come down to that fundamental sporting judgment. Risk versus reward. Hello. Monday looks set to be a rather breezy day but not quite as windy as it was on sunday when we had scenes like this with gusts of 50 mile an hour or more across parts of the uk and the sorts of winds we would expect during autumn but are pretty unusual in summer. The area of low pressure responsible not too far away, sliding towards scandinavia, High Pressure trying to build in from the south west but its not going to be quite as windy as it has been through monday. Still blustery out there with fewer showers and still some showers, those particularly affecting parts of scotland, Northern England maybe entering into east wales and the midlands, certainly the eastern side of england and some for Northern Ireland as well. The further south and west you are, not as many showers, more dry weather and spells of sunshine here. Still a noticeable north westerly breeze, these wind gusts we are expecting, just a notch or two lower than the wind speed we saw during sunday. It will still feel cool out there, i suspect, with top temperatures between 1a and 21 degrees and it will remain cool and fresh as we head through monday night. Many daytime showers will continue to fade and we will see showery rain drift across the far north of scotland and cloud amounts increasing across Northern Ireland through the early hours of tuesday morning. We start the day between 8 and 12 degrees. High pressure just about in charge as we begin tuesday. You can see this bump in the isobars here. However there is a frontal system that will work quickly into Northern Ireland. I showed you increasing amounts of cloud, and rain will set in through the morning and then spread eastwards. There is uncertainty aboutjust how far north or south the wet weather will get and there is likely to be a swathe of dry weather through the southern counties of england and the channel islands, and dry conditions with just showers in the northern half of scotland but those temperatures still around 14 21 degrees. That frontal system is not finished as we head towards wednesday, another pulse of energy, another wave holding it in place with more rain across southern counties and to the north of that frontal system, the air will not get warm with temperatures staying a touch below the average for the time of year. Some rain at times through the middle part of the week and the driest of the weather is likely to be across the north. This is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. Im aaron safir. The taj mahal stays shut as indias coronavirus cases reach a record high. Galicia in the north west of spain becomes the second region to impose a local lockdown after a fresh outbreak. In australia, restrictions return to melbourne as a breach of Hotel Quarantines is blamed for a spike in cases. And the show must go on republicans say they will hold their annual convention in florida despite its infection rate