This summer’s European Championship has been delayed for a year, the Norwegian football federation announced on Tuesday.
Euro 2020 was due to begin on June 12 for one month, but the decision has been made to postpone the finals due to the coronavirus pandemic, which has wreaked havoc on the sporting calendar.
The tournament, which involves 24 nations and takes place across 12 host cities, will instead be played in the summer of 2021, starting on June 11 and ending on July 11.
A statement from Norway’s FA read: “UEFA has decided that the European Championship is postponed to 2021. It will be played from 11 June to 11 July next year. More information coming.”
UEFA are expected to comment shortly.
European football’s governing body are also expected to reveal their plans for both the 2019/20 Champions League and Europa League seasons, which were suspended at the round-of-16 stage last week.
Euro 2020 is the latest sporting event to fall victim to coronavirus.
Rugby union and league both suspended their respective seasons on Monday and the Grand National was cancelled as organised sport in the UK effectively shut down because of the coronavirus crisis.
Premiership Rugby postponed all its fixtures for five weeks as the Rugby Football Union called a halt to ‘all rugby activity in England’, while the Super League has been suspended for at least the next fortnight.
The Champions Cup and Challenge Cup quarter-finals, which were due to take place from April 3-5, have also been postponed.
Super League executive chairman Robert Elstone said rugby league had bowed to the inevitable, with the Championship, League One, Women’s Super League and community games all also called off.
The Rugby Football League made the announcement in conjunction with Super League following a six-hour meeting of clubs in Huddersfield.
Elstone said: “Super League clearly recognise the gravity of the situation. We’re very mindful of our responsibility to our community, to our fans and to our players.”
Aintree’s Randox Health Grand National Festival, due to take place between April 2 and 4, will not go ahead.
Renowned as the world’s greatest steeplechase and the biggest betting event on the racing calendar, this year’s race had been due to see Tiger Roll bid to join Red Rum as the only three-time winner.
Jockey Club Racecourses, which runs Aintree, said it had been assessing the feasibility of running the race behind closed doors with minimal staff on site, but added: “The latest Government information on the measures needed to contain the virus have led it to believe this is no longer a viable consideration.”
Racing will go behind closed doors at all meetings in Britain from Tuesday, initially until the end of March. The fixtures at Wetherby and Taunton will be the first in England to be staged without paying members of the public.
Clive Tyldesley commentates on wife making lasagne as coronavirus cancels football across country
Football’s National League has suspended matches until at least April 3.
The FA, Premier League, English Football League and Women’s Super League and Women’s Championship had agreed to postpone professional matches on Friday, but the National League decided to continue with its fixtures over the weekend.
The organisation said in a statement on Monday, however, that it was ‘clearly not practical for its fixtures to be fulfilled in the immediate future’.
The Football Association announced it is ‘advising that all grassroots football in England is postponed for the foreseeable future’, while the Scottish Professional Football League has postponed all fixtures until advised otherwise by the Scottish Football Association and Government.
The Pakistan Super League announced on Tuesday morning that the competition had been postponed, on the day the semi-finals were due to take place.
The matches between Multan Sultans and Peshawar Zalmi, and Karachi Kings against Lahore Qalandars, will be rescheduled.
