Sumo, unlike football -- (the proper one as opposed to the pads and helmet version) -- never stops.
Many argue that there are too many basho each year with four, perhaps five deemed more conducive to rikishi health and welfare. The rikishi themselves, the sekitori in particular, no doubt feel the strain as one basho ends and the few short weeks before the serious training for the next begins are filled with social events, rank induced commitments, and frequent domestic, sometimes foreign tours.
So, as Japan and the majority of the six billion that call earth home start to tune in to watch the football World Cup, and, cough cough, England claim their first victory since 1966, little if any Japanese media coverage of late has been afforded the goliaths of the ring, the men of power that make up sumo.