The coronavirus outbreak continues to have an impact on the sporting schedule as some of 2020’s biggest events come into view.
A range of sports have had to take action to prevent the spread of the virus, with postponements hitting the Premier League and EFL until early April and all football in Scotland postponed with immediate effect.
The Guinness Six Nations and Formula One have also been affected, as has golf following the postponement of The Masters, while all domestic sporting action in Italy has been suspended until April 3 at the earliest.
With Euro 2020, the Olympics and golf’s majors on the horizon, the PA news agency takes a sport-by-sport look at the impact of the coronavirus.
Football
– The Premier League has been suspended until April 4 and the EFL until April 3 at the earliest.
– All Scottish football has been suspended with immediate effect and the Irish Football Association has suspended the current season in Northern Ireland until at least April 4. The Football Association of Ireland announced all football activity under its jurisdiction has been suspended until March 29.
– England’s two friendlies later this month at Wembley, the Women’s Super League and FA Women’s Championship have also been postponed by the FA. Wales’ international matches with Austria and the United States at the end of March are also both called off.
– UEFA has announced all Champions League and Europa League fixtures scheduled for next week are postponed, as well as the quarter-final draws for both competitions. UEFA has called an emergency meeting next Tuesday to discuss whether Euro 2020 can go ahead as scheduled.
– Arsenal head coach Mikel Arteta and Chelsea winger Callum Hudson-Odoi have tested positive for coronavirus, with the Gunners’ Premier League clash with Brighton on Saturday postponed.
– Everton’s entire first-team squad and coaching staff are undertaking a period of self-isolation after a first-team player reported symptoms consistent with coronavirus.
– Bournemouth have announced five of their employees, including goalkeeper Artur Boruc, are self-isolating having displayed symptoms consistent with the virus.
– Juventus defender Daniele Rugani also tested positive on Wednesday night, while three Leicester players have shown symptoms and were kept away from the rest of the Foxes’ squad.
– Major League Soccer announced the suspension of matches for 30 days with immediate effect.
– Real Madrid players have been told to go into quarantine after a member of the club’s basketball team tested positive for coronavirus. LaLiga announced it has suspended “at least the next two rounds of matches” as a result of the quarantine in place at Real.
– All domestic sporting action in Italy – including Serie A matches – has been suspended until April 3. Thursday’s Europa League ties between Sevilla and Roma in Spain and Inter Milan and Getafe in Italy were called off due to travel restrictions between the two countries imposed by the Spanish authorities.
– Ligue 1 and Ligue 2, the top two divisions in France, are suspended until further notice.
– All matches in the German Bundesliga this weekend will be played behind closed doors, except RB Leipzig’s home clash with Freiburg which does not have any restrictions.
– The South American (CONMEBOL) World Cup qualifiers scheduled for March 23-31 have been postponed to a later date.
Olympics and Paralympics
– The International Olympic Committee remains fully committed to staging the Tokyo 2020 Games as scheduled this summer, despite Japan’s Olympic minister Seiko Hashimoto suggesting it could be postponed until later in the year.
The British Olympic Association still plans to send a delegation of around 55 people to Tokyo this month for a “detailed operational recce”.
Rugby Union
– The Six Nations game between Wales and Scotland in Cardiff on Saturday was postponed on Friday, joining the games between France and Ireland and Italy against England.
– The Guinness PRO14 has been suspended indefinitely because of the coronavirus outbreak.
Formula One
– The season-opening Australian Grand Prix has been called off along with the races in Bahrain and Vietnam.
– McLaren had already withdrawn from the Australian race earlier on Thursday after a member of staff tested positive for the illness. It is understood the team member reported symptoms associated with the virus in the Albert Park paddock on Wednesday morning. Two personnel from American outfit Haas were tested and went in self-isolation.
Formula E
– Formula E has temporarily suspended the season.
Nascar
– Nascar announced it would be holding its race events in Atlanta (March 15) and Miami (March 22) without fans in attendance.
Motorcycling
– The opening four races of the MotoGP season in Qatar, Thailand, the United States and now Argentina were called off. The Qatar race was cancelled, while the other three have been moved to later in the season, which is now due to get under way in Spain on May 3.
Golf
– The Masters at Augusta, traditionally regarded as the sport’s blue riband event, became the first golf major to be postponed.
– The Players Championship has been cancelled along with all PGA Tour events for the next three weeks.
– Five European Tour tournaments have been postponed. Next week’s Hero Indian Open and August’s Czech Masters have joined this week’s Kenya Open and April’s Maybank Championship and China Open in being called off.
– The Ladies European Tour’s Aramco Saudi Ladies International has been postponed with a view to it being rescheduled later in the year.
Cricket
– England’s upcoming Test series against Sri Lanka is postponed with the touring players returning home.
– The start of the Indian Premier League has been postponed from March 29 to April 15 as a precautionary measure.
– Surrey have cancelled their pre-season training camp at the ICC Academy in Dubai amid concern over the safety of their players.
– The final two one-day internationals between India and South Africa will be played behind closed doors, as will the three-match one-day international series between Australia and New Zealand, which gets under way on Friday.
Basketball
– The NBA season has been suspended “until further notice” after an unnamed player from the Utah Jazz tested positive for coronavirus.
Cycling
– The Giro d’Italia, cycling’s first Grand Tour of the season which was due to start on May 9 in Budapest, has been postponed. The Strade Bianchi, Tirreno-Adriatico, Milan-San Remo and the Giro di Sicilia races in Italy have been called off.
– Fears of two cases of coronavirus at the UAE Tour saw the race cancelled with two stages left.
– Team INEOS are among a host of teams who have decided to withdraw from all racing until the Volta a Catalunya on March 23.
Tennis
– The high-profile BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells, where the likes of Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic were due to compete, was called off.
– The ATP has announced a six-week suspension of the men’s professional tennis tour due to “escalating health and safety issues” arising from the coronavirus outbreak.
– The Miami Open tennis tournament, due to start on March 23, has been cancelled after a ban on mass gatherings in Miami-Dade County.
– The Volvo Car Open in Charleston (April 4-12) has also been called off. Next month’s Fed Cup finals in Budapest and Fed Cup play-offs, due to be held in eight different locations, have been postponed, while China’s Xi’an Open (April 13-19) and Kunming Open (April 27-May 3) have been cancelled.
Racing
– Racing in Ireland will be closed to the public until March 29.
Athletics
– The World Indoor Championships, which had been due to take place in Nanjing in China this month, have been called off.
– Organisers of the London Marathon are monitoring the situation but the April 26 event is scheduled to go ahead. The Paris Marathon, which was due to take place on April 5, has been postponed until October 18 and the Rome Marathon, scheduled for March 29, has been cancelled.
– The International Triathlon Union has moved the 2020 ITU Paratriathlon World Championships, planned for May 2, from Milan to Montreal.
Rugby league
– The Betfred Super League match between Catalans Dragons and Leeds in Perpignan on Saturday was postponed after one of the Rhinos’ players was put into self-isolation after showing symptoms of coronavirus.
Boxing
– All events scheduled for March in Japan have been cancelled.
Snooker
– The £1million China Open, scheduled to start in Beijing at the end of March, has been cancelled. The attendance in the arena for this week’s Gibraltar Open has been limited to 100 people.
Ice skating
– The World Short Track Speed Skating Championships, scheduled for March 13-15, were called off. The World Figure Skating Championships in Quebec, planned for March 16-22, were also cancelled.
Judo
– The International Judo Federation has cancelled all Olympic qualification events on the calendar until April 30.
Darts
– The Professional Darts Corporation has cancelled the Premier League double-header in Rotterdam, the European Darts Grand Prix in Sindelfingen and the European Darts Open in Leverkusen, which were all scheduled for later this month, plus next month’s German Darts Grand Prix in Munich.
Ice hockey
– The NHL has been paused with 189 games regular-season remaining. The Stanley Cup play-offs were due to start the week of April 6.