The fact that the pandemic of the coronavirus infection COVID-19 has truly paralyzed the entire world professional sport can already be said with certainty. Every day, news appears about the next competition canceled or postponed indefinitely.
Almost stopped football life in Europe. The Italian Championship was stopped on March 9 until April 3, because of which three rounds were immediately called into question. The latest news from the camp of Juventus added fuel to the fire - player of Series A leader Daniele Rugani became infected with the coronavirus. After that, the club announced the isolation of 121 employees, including football players and coaches, as well as President Andrea Agnelli. Forward Cristiano Ronaldo is quarantined at home in Portugal and will not return to Italy in the near future - flights between the two countries are prohibited until March 24.
Matches in a number of other countries were canceled for various periods. Championship and Spanish Cup draws were stopped for at least two weeks due to quarantine in Real Madrid, which began after the coronavirus infection of one of the basketball players of the Madrid club. In the Netherlands, all events involving more than one hundred people were canceled, which is why at least two rounds of the local championship were postponed to a later date. The same fate befell the championships of Portugal, Ireland, Croatia and several other countries.
On Friday it was the turn of France. First, the local football federation announced the termination of all competitions held under its auspices, except for the first two divisions of the national championship. But a few hours later it was announced that Liga 1 and Liga 2 immediately take a break for an indefinite period. In Germany, it is planned to take a break from March 17 to April 2, but this decision still needs to be approved next Monday.
In England, talk of a suspension of the Premier League erupted with renewed vigor after the news that Arsenal head coach Mikel Arteta had been infected with a coronavirus. All club personnel and their base in contact with the mentor were quarantined. In addition to Arteta, the coronavirus was detected in the Chelsea player Callum Hudson-Odoi, and three Leicester players are under suspicion. As a result, at a general meeting of the English Football League, it was decided to cancel all matches in the country until April 4.
Problems within individual countries could not but affect the European Cups. UEFA initially canceled only two matches scheduled for March 17 of the 1/8 finals of the Champions League Manchester City - Real Madrid and Juventus - Lyon due to quarantine of Madrid and Turintsev. But then it was decided to cancel all the coming matches of the European Cups, as well as the draw for the quarter-finals of the Champions League and the Europa League. On March 17, all UEFA members, together with representatives of leagues and player unions, will determine the fate of this season's club tournaments and Euro 2020.
Coronavirus also swept the North American leagues. The first NBA surrendered after Utah Jazz player Rudy Gober was diagnosed with a coronavirus. Soon it became known about the infection of his teammate Donovan Mitchell. A pause in the regular season will last at least 30 days, after which the association may revise the deadline for the resumption of the competition. Gober had to apologize after this incident - he had previously deliberately ignored precautions to show that coronavirus poses no threat.
“First of all, I would like to publicly apologize to everyone I could endanger. I had no idea that I was infected. I was imprudent and not trying to make excuses. I hope my case will serve as a warning, and everyone will take the situation seriously. I will do my best to, based on my experience, convey information to others and prevent the spread of the virus, ”Gober wrote on Twitter.
Following the suspension of the season, the NHL announced. There were no cases of coronavirus infection in this league, however, many hockey clubs share arenas and locker rooms with the NBA teams, and therefore it was decided to cancel all matches from March 12. At the same time, the NHL commissioner Gary Bettman expressed his intention to resume the competition as soon as possible in order to manage to play the Stanley Cup. The regular season was originally scheduled to end on April 4, and the playoffs begin immediately after that date. Finally, after two rounds the season in the football MLS was stopped, and the Major League Baseball postponed the holding of its championship for at least two weeks.
Fans of Formula 1 will have to wait for the opening of the new season. The Australian Grand Prix will not take place this week after the coronavirus was discovered in one of the McLaren employees. Even before the official announcement of the cancellation of the race, a number of pilots left Melbourne for fear of their health. The leadership of the “Formula 1” will also discuss the issue of holding the next Grand Prix of Bahrain and Vietnam, to be held March 22 and April 5. Auto racing media do not exclude that all races will be canceled until the summer, and the first start will be the Azerbaijani Grand Prix on June 7.
The toughest decisions to cancel the competition were made by ATP and ITF. Both tennis organizations canceled all of their tournaments for the next six weeks, including the Federation Cup final. The next tournaments, which are still on the calendar, are Estoril and Munich. The WTA is in no hurry to stop the competition en masse - the organization itself canceled only the tournament in Charleston. Competitions in Bogota, Prague, as well as super tournaments in Indian Wells and Miami were excluded from the calendar by decision of local authorities.
An unpleasant procedure for canceling competitions has occurred in many other sports. Over the past two days, it has been announced that the Montreal World Figure Skating Championships, the Women's World Curling Championships in Canada, the Holmenkollen Biathlon World Cup, the Cross-Country Skiing World Cup in Minneapolis and Canmore, will not be held, all remaining races at the Alpine skiing World Cup, 12 water sports competitions, which included the qualifying competitions for the Olympic Games in Tokyo and two starts in Kazan - the stages of the World Series in Diving and the World Aquatics League ohm polo.