Golf’s jewel in the crown The Masters and English soccer’s Premier League joined the lengthening list of elite sporting events to fall foul of the coronavirus pandemic on Friday.
Few dates on the global sporting calendar are as keenly-anticipated as the Augusta National showpiece, but organizers moved swiftly to postpone golf’s opening major, which was due to be played between April 9-12, throwing the elite championship golf schedule into a state of flux.
England’s hugely-popular Premier League announced it was suspending matches until April 4, while soccer’s European governing body UEFA said that next week’s matches in the Champions League and Europa League would not be played.
The unprecedented shutdown of world sport in response to the coronavirus spread that has infected 138,000 people and killed more than 5,000 also prompted FIFA to recommended that all international matches scheduled to be played in March and April be postponed.
Soccer’s world governing body said that clubs would not be obliged to release players for any games that go ahead.
Organisers also postponed two of the biggest running events on the calendar, the marathons in Boston and London, which regularly draw tens of thousands of participants, including some of the world’s top athletes.
This weekend’s Grand Prix season opener in Australia was canceled hours before the first practice session.
England’s cricket players were heading home after their tour of Sri Lanka was called off, while this weekend’s Six Nations rugby match between Wales and Scotland was postponed.
France’s Top 14, the richest rugby union league in the world, was also suspended.
