UEFA have confirmed that all of next week’s Champions League and Europa League matches are OFF as the coronavirus epidemic continues to cause chaos.
Tuesday’s Champions League games between Manchester City and Real Madrid and Juventus and Lyon had already been postponed, but now Wednesday’s ties between Barcelona and Napoli and Bayern Munich and Chelsea have also been scrapped.
Thursday’s Europa League ties will also not go ahead, including the second legs of matches including Manchester United, Wolves and Rangers.
In a statement, UEFA said that the decision was made ‘in light of developments due to the spread of COVID-19 in Europe’.
The governing body add that the cancellations also stretch to UEFA Youth League matches scheduled on March 17 and 18, as well as the quarter-final draws for the Champions League and Europa League on March 20.
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Manchester United were among the sides in Europa League action on Thursday evening, beating LASK 5-0 away from home, but that looks set to be the final set of fixtures until at least the end of the month.
FULL UEFA STATEMENT
In the light of developments due to the spread of COVID-19 in Europe and related decisions made by different governments, all UEFA club competitions matches scheduled next week are postponed.
This includes the remaining UEFA Champions League, Round of 16-second leg matches scheduled on 17 and 18 March 2020; all UEFA Europa League, Round of 16-second leg matches scheduled on 19 March 2020; all UEFA Youth League, quarter-final matches scheduled on 17 and 18 March 2020.
Further decisions on when these matches take place will be communicated in due course.
As a consequence of the postponements, the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League quarter-final draws scheduled for 20 March have also been postponed.
UEFA yesterday invited representatives of its 55 member associations, together with the boards of the European Club Association and the European Leagues and a representative of FIFPro, to a videoconference meeting on Tuesday 17 March to discuss European football’s response to the outbreak.
