Despite Coronavirus, here are the sports leagues still going on!

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Image Courtesy: iStock

The COVID-19 Coronavirus pandemic has caused a number of major sporting events and tournaments to be cancelled or postponed. Many players have been reported having a positive test, and travel restrictions across the globe has taken a major hit at many major fixtures in the world of sports. Despite all the hurdles, some leagues are still continuing on with their schedule, with necessary precautions in place. Below here are the major sporting events are still on the run in spite of the virus spread.

Image Courtesy: iStock

Although the major and top tier leagues from some of the the following sports categories have seen postponement or cancellation, here are some who are still continuing.

  • Football:

Australia will go ahead with their top tier football competition, the A-League as planned. Although, four matches of the coming weeks have been postponed- Sydney FC vs Wellington Phoenix, Newcastle Jets vs Wellington Phoenix, Melbourne Victory vs Brisbane Roar and Perth Glory vs Melbourne Victory. But, the rest of the matches are planned to continue without spectators.

The Copa America, South America’s premier football competition is still not on hold despite the major halting in Europe. The 2020 season is scheduled to kick off from June 12 and will run till July 12 as Argentina and Colombia are the hosts. However, speculations are going on that Copa America may also face cancellation due to the coronavirus outbreak, but there has not been any statement from CONMEBOL yet.

Argentina’s nascent premier cup competition Copa de la Superliga will see its second season to go as planned, which started from 13th March and will see its closure on 31st May.

The 2020 season of Australian Football League (AFP), the country and world’s only professional Australian rules football championship is planned to kick off from 19th March, but the governing body AFL Commission has decided to cut short the tournament from 22 rounds to 17, along with all starting matches to happen behind closed doors.

  • Cricket:

The upcoming 2020 Men’s T20 World Cup in October has remained unchanged, as ICC recently confirmed. However, closed monitoring and plans for necessary precautionary measures are on the table.

  • Olympics:

As the whole world is looking forward to the biggest sporting event of this year, the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics as of now is planned to go ahead smoothly from its inaugural date of 24th July in the capital of Japan. However, the iconic torch handover ceremony is to be done in an empty stadium in Athens on 19th March, as the historical torch lighting ceremony was conducted behind closed doors in Olympia.

  • Rugby:

Although several major rugby events such as the PRO14, Betfred Super League and some fixtures of the Six Nations tournament were met with cancellation, the 2020 National Rugby League (NRL) of Australia is scheduled to continue forward ahead of its first week.

  • Mixed Martial Arts:

The UFC Fight Night 170 event, a lightweight bout between Kevin Lee and Charles Oliveira was conducted as a behind closed doors event at the Ginásio Nilson Nelson arena in Brasília, Brazil.

The UFC Fight Night 171, which was supposed to be held on 21st March at the The O2 Arena in London, has now met with a postponement after a travel ban in the country due to the coronavirus outbreak. Tyron Woodley and Leon Edwards will now take each other in a different arena, with speculations going on as USA being the possible relocated venue.

  • Snooker:

The 2020 World Snooker Championship is scheduled to inaugurate on 18th April at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England as planned. Although the tournament venue saw a temporary closure today, the theatre officially released a statement that they will reopen before the flagship snooker event begins next month.

  • Horse Racing:

Like Football and Rugby, Australia has not put up any suspension on its horse racing events. However, all races in Victoria until 13th April are to be held behind closed doors, as officially stated by Racing Victoria yesterday.

The British Horseracing Authority (BHA) will also continue its races for March as planned, but all events in England, Scotland and Wales of this month are to happen without spectators.

Also read-

All the sports, leagues and promotions that have been suspended due to Conoravirus