The outbreak of the coronavirus has slowly but surely ground most sporting action a halt. Thursday proved to be a big day for cancellation announcements.
Not only has the Australian Grand Prix, the opening race of the F1 calendar cancelled (with more races likely to follow), but all major sports in the US have now been suspended too.
The big sports shutdown
The NBA, NHL and MLS all came through and announced temporary shutdowns for at least two weeks to try and stem the spread of the coronavirus. The ATP and WTA tennis tours had shut down earlier in the week.
The LPGA has postponed its first Major of the year. The Rugby Six Nations conclusion is up in the air with Italy’s games against Ireland and England still needing to be rescheduled, along with a match between Ireland and France. The Pro14 rugby season has been suspended indefinitely as well.
The 2020 Olympic Games are, as it stands, still going to go ahead. Betfair quote 1/3 available on NO option for their market Will Opening Ceremony take place on 24/07/2020?
UEFA meeting to discuss Euro 2020
Spain, Italy, Portugal and the Netherlands have all shut down their respective top-flight football action for a while.
Next week’s scheduled UEFA Champions League matches of Manchester City v Real Madrid and Juventus v Lyon have been postponed as well.
UEFA are set to meet on Tuesday next week about the situation and what do with Euro 2020 which is scheduled for the summer.
On the Betfair Exchange, 7.6 odds backing Will Euro 2020 kick-off as scheduled – 12th June 2020 was available, with the Lay option at 12.0.
If UEFA were to move the European Championships to the summer of 2021, that could ease a lot of pressure off of domestic leagues like the Premier League. That is because it would free up the summer of 2020 for leagues to fit in their postponed games. It would probably convince more domestic leagues to shut down now.
Premier League set to continue
While at the time of writing most English Premier League games are still set to go ahead for the weekend, with Scottish action continuing as well.
Following the midweek postponement of Man City v Arsenal, the scheduled Brighton v Arsenal fixture for Saturday has been called off. Gunners boss Mikel Arteta tested positive for the coronavirus.
The British Government are considering moves to either suspend all sport or have events held behind closed doors.
