Coronavirus wipes out most of world's major sports events on an unprecedented day - 3 minutes read


Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta said he was "feeling better" after testing positive for coronavirus

The coronavirus pandemic wiped out most of the world's major sporting events in an unprecedented 24 hours.

As Friday began, the Premier League was one of the last football competitions standing - albeit with fans awaiting the outcome of an emergency meeting.

During the wait, at 10:20 GMT, England's men's cricket Test tour or Sri Lanka was cancelled. Then at about 11:00 GMT the Premier League and EFL announced: no football until April.

In fact, there will be no elite football in the whole of Britain for the next three weeks at least - with BBC Sport's Dan Roan reporting that a Premier League and EFL re-start on 3-4 April is privately deemed "almost impossible".

The only Six Nations fixture still scheduled for this weekend, Wales v Scotland, was definitely on at 09:30 GMT, but called off by 14:00.

More followed. The Masters was also postponed at 14:00, and it was announced at 17:05 that April's London Marathon will be moved to October.

There was still some live sport happening. A crowd of 68,859 watched Al Boum Photo win a second successive Cheltenham Gold Cup.

If you struggled to keep up with Friday's continuous stream of cancellations, here is what is off and what is still going ahead this weekend.

Which sports events have been cancelled because of coronavirus?

On a day of widespread sporting postponements worldwide, here is a round-up:

Which sports events are still going ahead?

But there is still live sport this weekend, here's what remains at the time of publication:

What could be next?

BBC News reports that the UK Government could ban mass gatherings from as early as next week in a shift in policy to ease pressure on emergency services.

As it stands, the Grand National is still going ahead on 4 April.

Attention will now turn to the summer. European football's governing body Uefa has called an emergency meeting on Tuesday at which the possibility of postponing Euro 2020 by one year will be an option discussed.

Premier League clubs will hold a second emergency meeting on Thursday to discuss the outcome of the Uefa decision on Euro 2020 and how it might impact the rest of the domestic season.

And what about the world's biggest sporting event - the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games?

Japan's Olympics minister has conceded the Games could be postponed until later in the year if the coronavirus outbreak makes their scheduled start on 24 July unfeasible.

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Source: BBC News

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