UEFA postpones all next week’s Champions League, Europa games over coronavirus

UEFA, European football’s governing body, has postponed all next week’s Champions League and Europa League fixtures due to coronavirus.

In a statement issued on Friday, UEFA said further decisions on the scheduling of the postponed fixtures “will be communicated in due course”.

The football’s governing body added that it will decide how to reschedule games and the quarter final draw, which was also postponed, on Tuesday at their crisis summit.

“In the light of developments due to the spread of COVID-19 in Europe and related decisions made by different governments, all Uefa club competitions matches scheduled next week are postponed,” UEFA said.

“This includes the remaining Uefa Champions League, round of 16 second leg matches scheduled on 17 and 18 March 2020; all Uefa Europa League, Round of 16 second leg matches scheduled on 19 March 2020; all UEFA Youth League, quarter-final matches scheduled on 17 and 18 March 2020.

“Further decisions on when these matches take place will be communicated in due course.

“As a consequence of the postponements, the Uefa Champions League and Uefa Europa League quarter-final draws scheduled for 20 March have also been postponed.

“Uefa yesterday invited representatives of its 55 member associations, together with the boards of the European Club Association and the European Leagues and a representative of FIFPro, to a videoconference meeting on Tuesday 17 March to discuss European football’s response to the outbreak.”

Since its outbreak in China in December, the virus has killed about 5,000 persons, with at least 134,000 infected.