Football: Arsenal players confined, the Europa League disrupted

Sad first for Arsenal. The Gunners team became, Wednesday, March 11, the first European professional football team to be placed in quarantine because of the coronavirus pandemic. The latter greatly disrupts European football, while several championships have announced systematic closed doors and that certain matches in the Europa League are threatened.

Arsenal said in a statement that "a number of players" had been held in solitary confinement for 14 days, as well as "four members of the management". In question: the entry into contact of several members of Arsenal staff with the shareholder of Olympiakos, Evangelos Marinakis, declared positive at Covid-19.

The Premier League have postponed our match with Manchester City on Wednesday night as a precautionary measure.https: //t.co/qTX1QiXjZv

A decision that caused the postponement of the Premier League match between Manchester City and the Gunners. The postponement is due to the unavailability of these players, which handicapped a team struggling to get out of the middle of the table (9th to five points from the fifth, Manchester United).

Inter Milan-Getafe and Seville-Roma paralyzed by the epidemic

The spread of the coronavirus in Italy and Spain has put aside the holding of the Inter Milan-Getafe and Seville-AS Rome shocks, initially scheduled for Thursday, while other round of 16 of the Europa League will be held behind closed doors.

Initially scheduled without audience in Milan (9 p.m.) and Seville (6:55 p.m.), the two matches "will not take place as planned on March 12," UEFA said on Wednesday, without mentioning a postponement or cancellation and while the return matches are scheduled for March 19.

Italy, the European country hardest hit by the Covid-19 epidemic, has taken drastic containment measures, and Spain on Monday banned direct air links with Italy until March 25 .

As of Tuesday, Getafe president Angel Torres said he had asked UEFA to provide an "alternative", refusing to "enter a coronavirus outbreak" and even said he was ready to "lose the match". And on Wednesday, Roma announced on Twitter that their team "would not go to Spain for the Europa League match against Seville, their plane from Italy having not been allowed to land in Spain".

Coronavirus, stop aerei Spagna: Roma non va a Siviglia https://t.co/NUky8AjUP4

After a slow warm-up round against Cluj in the previous round (1-1 outward, 0-0 return), the Sevillans were preparing to host Roma behind closed doors in Spain, where the next two days of the championship will play without an audience.

Other matches will be contested without spectators: the match between Olympiakos, Arsenal knockout in the sixteenth, and Wolverhampton, as well as the Linz-Manchester United, Wolfsburg-Shakhtar Donetsk and Frankfurt-Basel duels.

The Glasgow Rangers on Tuesday planned "additional security measures", including self-service hydroalcoholic gel, for the reception of the Bayer Leverkusen.

With AFP

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