Coronavirus: Sporting events cancelled over pandemic

In the UK, football's Premier League and Football League ignored government advice and said there would be no football until April. Spain's La Liga postponed games for at least two rounds of matches. Fixtures in Italy and Germany have also been postponed.

UEFA suspended all Champions and Europa League games until further notice and was considering postponing the 2020 European Championship.

Rugby union's international six nation matches are all off, while cricket's Indian Premier League, the world's biggest sporting franchise, has been postponed with the window for the tournament to take place at all getting smaller.

England's cricket tour to Sri Lanka was cancelled and New Zealand's one-day series in Australia has been stopped after one match due to government travel restrictions.

The Miami Open tennis tournament was cancelled as were upcoming ATP events. America's national basketball competition was suspended earlier in the week until further notice after a Utah Jazz player tested positive for the virus.

Golf's Players Championship in Florida was cancelled after just one round and the Augusta Masters has been postponed from its scheduled April 9 - 12 date.

Motor racing was hard hit, with this weekend's Melbourne Grand Prix cancelled followed by the Bahrain, Vietnam and China events that were due to take place on March 22, April 4 and April 19 respectively.

Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said the Tokyo Olympic Games would go ahead as planned in Jul and added the International Olympic Committee would have the final decision.

"We will overcome the spread of the infection and host the Olympics without problem, as planned," Abe said.

The Japan section of the Olympic Torch relay is due to start in Fukushima on 26 March. The recent torch-lighting ceremony in ancient Olympia was held without spectators, before the rest of the relay in Greece was suspended to avoid attracting crowds.