The outbreak of the raging coronavirus has impacted the staging of sporting events in China and elsewhere.
According to the BBC, the following 53 sporting events have been affected so far:
2 March
CRICKET: Ireland women’s cricket tour to Thailand for a four-team tournament was cancelled.
MOTOGP: The season’s second race, set for Thailand on 22 March, is cancelled “in the best interests of the nation and participants”. The season opening race had already been cancelled.
1 March
MOTOGP: The opening race of the season in Qatar on 8 March is cancelled as a result of travel restrictions imposed on passengers from Italy because of coronavirus.
FOOTBALL: The Serie A match between Sampdoria’s and Hellas Verona, scheduled for 2 March, is also postponed because of the outbreak in Italy.
29 February
FOOTBALL: Five Serie A matches, including Juventus’ game at home to Inter Milan, that were due to be played on the weekend of 29 February and 1 March were postponed following the outbreak of the virus in Italy.
TRIATHLON: The opening event in the World Triathlon Series in Abu Dhabi, which was due to take place from 5-7 March, was postponed as a “precautionary measure” after a number of new cases were reported in the city. Organisers say they hope to reschedule the event later in March or April.
28 February
FOOTBALL: The weekend’s matches in Switzerland’s top two divisions were postponed, and the World Anti-Doping Agency cancelled next month’s annual symposium in the Swiss city of Lausanne.
WRESTLING: The Asian Olympic Games qualifying, due to take place from 27-29 March in Kyrgyzstan was cancelled, due to government advice to prevent the spread of the virus.
27 February
CYCLING: UAE Tour cancelled after two “staff members” at the event tested positive for coronavirus.
SKIING: The annual Engadin ski marathon in Switzerland, one of the world’s largest cross-country skiing events with around 14,000 participants, due to take place on 8 March, is cancelled.
26 February
RUGBY UNION: Ireland v Italy’s Six Nations game in Italy on 7 March postponed.
SKATING: World Short Track Speed Skating Championships, due to take place in Seoul, South Korea from 13-15 March, cancelled.
25 February
RUGBY UNION: Six Nations officials say they are “monitoring” the situation in Italy, where England are due to play on 14 March.
TABLE TENNIS: World Table Tennis Championships in South Korea, due to be held from 22-29 March, are postponed until June.
FOOTBALL: Japan’s J-League postpones all domestic games until the middle of March.
FOOTBALL: Five matches in the next round of fixtures in Italy’s Serie A are ordered to be played behind closed doors.
OLYMPICS: International Olympic Committee member Dick Pound says preparations for the Tokyo Games in July are “business as usual”.
FORMULA 1: Ferrari restricts access to its factory in northern Italy for those that are “resident in or have visited the affected municipalities”.
HORSE RACING: An industry steering group will look at potential implications but there is currently no threat to next month’s Cheltenham Festival.
24 February
RUGBY UNION: Ospreys and Ulster’s Pro14 trips to play in Italy on 29 February were postponed. Ospreys were due to play Zebre in Parma with Treviso the venue for Ulster’s game against Benetton. The Italian Rugby Federation also suspended it’s National Championship and youth games for the weekend of 28 February to 1 March.
FOOTBALL: The start of the K-League season was postponed, with the four teams in the AFC Champions League playing their matches behind closed doors.
23 February
FOOTBALL: Selected Serie A matches in the northern Italian regions of Lombardy and Veneto were postponed. Several matches in Serie B and Serie D, as well as a number of amateur and youth games, were also called off.
RUGBY UNION: Scotland Women’s Six Nations match with Italy postponed.
21 February
FOOTBALL: China’s 2022 World Cup qualifiers at home to the Maldives and away to Guam moved to Thailand and will be played behind closed doors in March.
FOOTBALL: Daegu FC and Pohang Steelers home fixtures in South Korea’s K-League were postponed.
TABLE TENNIS: The first-stage draw for the Table Tennis World Championships, scheduled to take place in South Korea from 22 to 29 Match, was postponed. Organisers are going to take World Health Organisation advice before deciding whether to postpone the event entirely.
20 February
TENNIS: The women’s Xi’an Open, which was scheduled for 13 to 19 April, was cancelled. The WTA said it was monitoring the situation with several events scheduled to take place in China in the second half of the season.
18 February
TENNIS: China forfeited a Davis Cup tie because its men’s team were unable to travel to Romania for their play-off at the start of March.
BEACH VOLLEYBALL: A beach volleyball tournament, due to be held from 22 to 26 April in Yangzhou, was postponed until after the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
MMA: Organisers of the Asian mixed martial arts One Championship said the event, scheduled for February 29 in Singapore, will take place behind closed doors.
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17 February
WEIGHTLIFTING: The Asian weightlifting championships, scheduled for March, were relocated from Kazakhstan to neighbouring Uzbekistan.
15 February
GYMNASTICS: The Chinese team pulled out of the Gymnastics World Cup in Melbourne.
14 February
GOLF: The European Tour’s Maybank Championship and Volvo China Open, both scheduled for April, were postponed.
BASKETBALL: Fiba Asia Cup basketball qualifying matches between Japan and China, Philippines and Thailand and China and Malaysia were all postponed.
13 February
RUGBY SEVENS: The Singapore and Hong Kong legs of the World Rugby Sevens Series were postponed from April until October.
12 February
GOLF: The PGA Tour Series-China postponed two qualifying tournaments and delayed the start of its 2020 campaign by two months, cutting the number of regular season tournaments from 14 to 10.
FORMULA ONE: The Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai, set for April 19, was postponed by the governing body FIA and Formula One. Authorities will weigh potential alternative dates later this year if the situation improves.
11 February
FOOTBALL: The Asian Football Confederation said preliminary stage matches of the East Zone of the AFC Cup were postponed until April due to travel curbs in several countries.
9 February
GOLF: The Honda LPGA Thailand event in Pattaya, Thailand scheduled for 20 to 23 February and the HSBC Women’s World Championship in Singapore, scheduled to start on February 27, were both postponed.
8 February
GOLF: The Women’s Amateur Asia-Pacific golf championship, due take place from 12 to 15 February in Thailand, was postponed and rescheduled for October.
7 February
HOCKEY: Hockey Pro League matches between China and Australia, scheduled for 14 to 25 March in Changzhou, were postponed.
FOOTBALL: Vietnam said it would not allow sports events to be hosted in February, meaning home AFC Cup group stage matches for Ho Chi Minh City and Than Quang Ninh were switched to away fixtures.
4 February
FOOTBALL: Asian Champions League matches involving Chinese clubs Guangzhou Evergrande, Shanghai Shenhua and Shanghai SIPG were postponed until April.
2 February
MOTORSPORT: The all-electric Formula E motor racing series abandoned plans for a race in Sanya on 21 March.
1 February
BADMINTON: The China Masters tournament in Hainan, scheduled to start on February 25, was postponed after several players withdrew. The Badminton World Federation said it hoped the flagship Badminton Asia Championships could still go ahead in Wuhan in April.
31 January
GOLF: The elite women’s LPGA golf tour cancelled the Blue Bay tournament due to be held on Hainan Island in March.
30 January
FOOTBALL: The Chinese Football Association said domestic games at all levels would be postponed.
29 January
FOOTBALL: The home leg of the Chinese women’s national team’s Olympic qualification play-off against South Korea in March was switched in Sydney. The squad were held in quarantine upon their arrival in Australia for January’s qualifying group stage.
ATHLETICS: The World Athletics Indoor Championships, scheduled for Nanjing from 13 to 15 March, were postponed until next year.
27 January
BASKETBALL: The Women’s Olympic qualifying tournament, scheduled for Foshan from 6-9 February, was relocated to Belgrade, Serbia by world governing body Fiba.
26 January
TENNIS: The International Tennis Federation moved the Fed Cup Asia/Oceania Group I event featuring China, Taiwan, Indonesia, South Korea and Uzbekistan out of Dongguan to Nur-Sultan (formerly Astana) in Kazakhstan. The event was then moved again to Dubai and rescheduled for the start of March after Kazakhstan declined to serve as substitute hosts.
22 January
BOXING: The International Olympic Committee cancels Olympic boxing qualifiers due to take place in Wuhan. They will now take place in Amman from 3 to 11 March.
FOOTBALL: Olympic women’s qualifiers moved from Wuhan to Nanjing, before later being switched to Sydney.
