Sports

Corona strikes big ticket sports events

Published on: 

PIONEER SPORT looks at the effects on sport of 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, Chelsea winger Callum Hudson-Odoi and three players of Serie A side Fiorentina’s were 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, all sporting events including Serie A have been suspended until April 3.
  • 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.
  • Three UEFA Europa League games on Thursday including Manchester United away to LASK Linz had no fans.
  • 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.
  • A Euro 2020 warm-up tournament in Qatar featuring Portugal, Belgium, Croatia and Switzerland, has been cancelled.
  • 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.

In India

  • Indian Super League final between ATK FC and Chennaiyin FC in Goa on March 14 was held in empty stadium.
  • All football tournaments, including I-League, suspended till March 31.
  • India’s FIFA World Cup qualifier match against Qatar in Bhubaneswar on March 26 and against Afghanistan on June 9 in Kolkata postponed.
  • Final round of Santosh Trophy matches in Aizawl from April 14-27 postponed.

CRICKET

  • The start of IPL-13, scheduled for March 29, delayed until at least April 15.
  • The final two one day internationals between India and South Africa as well as Australia vs New Zealand were scrapped, as was the whole of England’s tour of Sri Lanka.

In India

  • All domestic games suspended.
  • Ranji Trophy final on March 13 played without spectators.
  • Road Safety World Series from March 7-22 in Mumbai and Pune cancelled.

BADMINTON

  • BWF postpone Swiss Open, India Open, Orléans Masters, Malaysia Open and Singapore Open as well as a number of international Grade 3 tournaments atleast till April 12.

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 of its first four planned races of the season.

In India

  • South India Rally, which doubles up as opening round of FIA Asia-Pacific C’ship, to be held without spectators in Chennai from March 20-22.

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.

In India

  • All domestic tournament cancelled.

SHOOTING

  • ISSF World Cup for Rifle, Pistol and Shotgun in New Delhi March 15-25 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.

In India

  • The Indian Open in New Delhi, set for March 19-22, was postponed on Wednesday.
  • All tournaments of the Professional Golf Tour of India (PGTI) from March 16 postponed indefinitely.

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.
  • Torch relay for the Tokyo Olympics 2020 in Olympia was scrapped on Friday as large crowd turned out despite coronavirus warning.

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. LeBron James and Stephen Curry have called on the league to cancel the season after a ‘rough’ 2020.

In India

  • FIBA 3x3 Olympic qualifying tournament from March 18 to 22 in Bengaluru postponed.

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.

In India

  • Federation Cup National Junior Athletics Championships to be held in Bhopal from April 6-8 postponed.
Daily Pioneer
dailypioneer.com