AFP looks at the effects on sport of the coronavirus, which by Saturday had killed over 5,400 people while infecting more than 143,000 in 135 countries and territories.
FOOTBALL
— English Premier League suspended all fixtures until April 4, with matches in the English Football League, Women’s Super League, all Scottish football and international friendlies for England and Wales also postponed.
— Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta and Chelsea winger Callum Hudson-Odoi tested positive for COVID-19.
— Spanish club Real Madrid’s players were put in quarantine as La Liga announced Spain’s top two divisions will be suspended for at least two weeks.
— UEFA postponed all Champions League and Europa League games next week.
— In Italy, the hardest-hit European country with 1,016 deaths from COVID-19, all sporting events including Serie A have been suspended until April 3.
— On Wednesday, Juventus defender Daniele Rugani became the first Serie A footballer to test positive with Sampdoria forward Manolo Gabbiadini announcing that he had contracted the virus on Thursday.
— French football has been suspended “until further notice”, with the German Bundesliga also put on hold.
— The Netherlands’ Eredivisie has been suspended until March 31.
— The Netherlands’ friendly against Spain set for March 29 cancelled. The United States has called off friendlies against the Dutch on March 26 and Wales (March 30).
— Other international friendlies to be played behind closed doors include France v Ukraine and Germany v Italy.
— The start of Japan’s J-League was postponed till mid-March while China suspended all domestic football and shelved indefinitely the top-flight Super League season.
— The French League Cup final between Paris Saint-Germain and Lyon has been called off, with no new date yet fixed, as has the Spanish Copa del Rey final between Real Sociedad and Athletic Bilbao.
— South American World Cup qualifiers have been postponed, as was the next round of the Copa Libertadores.
— The FIFA Congress, due to take place in Addis Ababa on June 5, was pushed back to September 18.
TENNIS
— The ATP has suspended its tour for six weeks “due to escalating health and safety issues”.
— The ATP and WTA Miami Open was called off after Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez declared a state of emergency over the outbreak.
— The prestigious ATP and WTA Indian Wells tournament was cancelled, the first major sports event in the US to be shelved because of the outbreak.
— The inaugural Fed Cup Finals scheduled for next month in Budapest were postponed.
GOLF
— The year’s opening men’s major, the Masters at Augusta National scheduled for April 9-12, has been postponed.
— The Players Championship was cancelled after Thursday’s first round, with all PGA Tour events off until after the Masters.
— European Tour chiefs postponed the Maybank Championship in Malaysia and the China Open in Shenzhen — both set for April, and this week’s Kenyan Open.
— The US LPGA Tour cancelled all three of its lucrative early-season events in Asia, and also its next three events in the United States.
— The Indian Open in New Delhi, set for March 19-22, was postponed on Wednesday.
RUGBY UNION
— The Six Nations match between Italy and England in Rome on Saturday as well as the Ireland v Italy duel in Dublin on March 7 were postponed.
— All of the final round of matches have been put back until October, with Wales v Scotland joining France’s game against Ireland and England’s trip to Italy in being postponed.
— Sevens World Series tournaments in Hong Kong on April 3-5 and Singapore the following weekend will now be played in October.
— Super Rugby, the southern hemisphere’s premier competition, is suspending its season after this weekend.
MOTORSPORT
— Sunday’s season-opening Australian Grand Prix was called off early on Friday, with the Bahrain and Vietnamese races also postponed.
— The Chinese Grand Prix, which was set for April 19 in Shanghai, has been delayed.
— In motorcycling, the season-opening Qatar MotoGP was cancelled, along with the Thailand MotoGP on March 22 (postponed until October 4). On Tuesday the Grand Prix of the Americas at Austin was rescheduled from April to November, while the MotoGP race in Argentina was also put on hold.
— IndyCar called off its first four planned races of the season.
BASKETBALL
— NBA suspended the season after Utah Jazz’s Rudy Gobert tested positive for the new coronavirus. ESPN reported that his teammate Donovan Mitchell has also tested positive.
— NCAA ‘March Madness’ to be closed to general public.
ATHLETICS
— The World Indoor Championships, scheduled for Nanjing from March 13-15, were postponed until next year.
— The Paris Marathon, scheduled for April 5 with 60,000 registered runners, was postponed until October 18.
— Next month’s London Marathon has also been postponed until October.
— The Barcelona Marathon, which was scheduled for March 15 with 17,000 runners, was postponed until October 4.
— Boston Marathon moved from April 20 to September 14.
CYCLING
— The Giro d’Italia, the first Grand Tour of the season, was put on hold on Friday.
— The spring classic Milan-San Remo, scheduled for March 21, was postponed, having only previously been cancelled three times since the inaugural edition in 1907.
— This month’s Tour of Cataluyna has been postponed, organisers announced on Thursday.
TOKYO OLYMPICS
— World Athletics Sebastian Coe said the 2020 Tokyo Games will go ahead.
Tokyo city governor Yuriko Koike said cancelling the Olympics is “unthinkable”.
The Olympics take place from July 24-August 9.
— US President Donald Trump suggested the Olympics could be postponed for a year. “I like that better than I like having empty stadiums,” he said.
CRICKET
— The start of India’s IPL, scheduled for March 29, delayed until at least April 15.
— The final two one day internationals between India and South Africa were scrapped, as was England’s tour of Sri Lanka.
— New Zealand abandoned their tour of Australia after Wellington tightened border controls. The final ODIs and T20 series were due to be played behind closed doors Coronavirus.
ALPINE SKIING
— Norway’s Aleksander Aamodt Kilde won alpine skiing’s men’s World Cup title after the final races of the season at Kranjska Gora at the weekend were scrapped Coronavirus.
— The World Cup finals, scheduled for Cortina d’Ampezzo in Italy between March 16-22, were cancelled Coronavirus.
— This weekend’s three women’s races in Are were scrapped, crowning Federica Brignone as the overall champion.
FIGURE SKATING
— World championships, scheduled for Montreal next week, were cancelled.
BASEBALL
— Japan’s domestic baseball season, originally set to open on March 10, was postponed.
ICE HOCKEY
— The NHL commissioner Gary Bettman halted the competition on Thursday three weeks before the scheduled conclusion of the 2019-20 regular season.
— The Women’s World Ice Hockey Championships, set for Halifax and Truro in Nova Scotia for March 31 to April 10, were cancelled.
AFP