The coronavirus pandemic continued to affect the world of sport on Thursday.
Here, the PA news agency recaps the day’s main developments.
9.50am – The J.League announces there will be no relegation during the 2020 season in any of their three tiers but two teams will be promoted from the second and third divisions. Only one match was played in Japan’s domestic leagues before the coronavirus outbreak.
10.23am – FIFPRO asks Turkish Super Lig and the Turkish Football Federation to “urgently reconsider the decision to continue matches and training” after several players contacted them about their concerns.
FIFPRO has written to the Turkish #SuperLig and federation asking them to urgently reconsider the decision to continue matches and training during the #coronavirus outbreak Numerous foreign players have contacted us to say they are uncomfortable continuing as #COVID19 spreads pic.twitter.com/2N3owMyf5i — FIFPRO (@FIFPro) March 19, 2020
12.04pm – Professional Darts Corporation confirmed Players Championship double-headers, European Tour qualifiers and the Unicorn Challenge Tour events planned for April were all postponed.
1.00pm – Professional football in England will not resume until April 30 at the earliest due to the coronavirus pandemic after a statement from the Premier League, EFL and the Football Association, along with the Women’s professional game, the Professional Footballers’ Association and the League Managers’ Association confirmed the extension of the suspension.
The FA, Premier League, EFL and women’s professional game, together with the PFA and LMA are committed to finding ways of resuming the 2019/20 football season as soon as it is safe and possible to do so Full statement: https://t.co/kr0sJk8JHp pic.twitter.com/K1OBzBbKfc — Premier League (@premierleague) March 19, 2020
2.03pm – In golf, the European Tour calendar continued to be badly hit, with the GolfSixes Cascais event cancelled and the Made in Denmark tournament postponed. GolfSixes Cascais was scheduled to take place at Oitavos Dunes in Portugal from May 9-10, while Made in Denmark was due to return to Himmerland Golf & Spa Resort from May 21-24.
2.25pm – More golf events were cancelled as The R&A called off the Student Tour Series Final at St Andrews and Carnoustie, and the Girls’ U16 Amateur Championship at Fulford, which were both due to take place in April.
Miss you already 😢 See you again in 2021, Monaco ❤️#F1 #MonacoGP 🇲🇨 pic.twitter.com/dFWfyHVuyj — Formula 1 (@F1) March 19, 2020
3.12pm – Formula One confirmed that the Dutch, Spanish and Monaco Grands Prix were all postponed. The three races were due to take place in May, meaning the earliest the new season can start is on June 7 in Azerbaijan.
5.29pm – The Turkish Football Federation announced it was suspending all football activities until further notice, citing a recommendation made on Wednesday by Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
NEWS | Joint Response Group Update – Thursday, 19 March.https://t.co/cCnF5nhgAF — Scottish FA (@ScottishFA) March 19, 2020
5.50pm – Organisers of the Monaco Grand Prix announced that the event initially set for May 24 – which had been postponed earlier in the day – was cancelled.
7.57pm – The Scottish FA announced that football would not resume before April 30 after a meeting of the Joint Response Group.
