OFFICIALLY OFFICIAL: Juventus vs. Lyon postponed indefinitely

UEFA announced that the second leg of the Champions League Round of 16 tie between Juventus and Lyon that was set to be played in Turin this coming Tuesday night has been postponed. There has been no date as to which the game has been rescheduled as Italy currently deals with a growing number of coronavirus-related deaths that has soared over 1,000 as of Thursday.

With the COVID-19 pandemic continuing to spiral out of control throughout, the world of sports is starting to face the harsh reality that it too will have to come to a shuddering stop in the coming days.

Late Wednesday night came the stunning announcement that Juventus defender Daniele Rugani had tested positive for the Novel Coronavirus with the Bianconeri now going into a mandatory 15-day quarantine. Then a player in the NBA tested positive too leading to the immediate suspension of basketball in the USA, which was followed by the European governing body for the sport making a similar decision after a Real Madrid player also tested positive.

That led to a two-week minimum cessation of activities in La Liga with the entire Real sports franchise shutting down for now. In other sports, the McLaren racing team has withdrawn from this weekend’s season-opener Formula 1 race in Australia, where Hollywood icon Tom Hanks announced last night that he and his wife had also tested positive for the virus.

In the United States, the NHL is also considering a decision to either proceed with closed-doors games or else completely suspending all games for now and earlier this week was the announcement that the Indian Wells’ Open tennis tournament was being cancelled though in golf the TPC Sawgrass event in Florida is still on.

Denmark have suspended all football following suit from Italy’s Serie A and Spain’s La Liga while Germany’s Bundesliga, France’s Ligue 1 and the Netherlands’ Eredivisie are either suspended or continuing behind closed doors.

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Already Real Madrid’s Champions League game against Manchester City was under threat along with Juventus taking on Olympique Lyon on the same day next week. A number of Europa League games have either been postponed (Inter Milan vs Getafe for one) or will proceed behind closed doors, and now it appears UEFA are considering suspension of all football in the Champions League and Europa League.

UPDATES:

Another Serie A player has been found to test positive after Rugani’s news yesterday, with reports saying it’s Sampdoria striker Manolo Gabbiadini. Meanwhile in England three Leicester City players are in quarantine showing symptoms currently.

UEFA has finally gotten off sitting on their hands with more and more clubs being affected by this crisis, and have announced that they will be meeting with key stakeholders to discuss next steps.

However, bizarrely enough they have called the meeting to be held next Tuesday, almost a full week from today, to respond to what is a fast-developing situation. Where is the sense of urgency?

More to come on this, stay tuned.