Tokyo Olympics 2020: Fixtures of football qualifiers shuffled due to coronavirus outbreak

What's the story?

Football qualifiers for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and other international sporting events like LPGA Golf have been disrupted as a result of the outbreak of the Coronavirus in China.

The background

The Coronavirus outbreak in China has affected almost 6,000 people in the Wuhan region of the Hebei province. A total of more than 200 people have succumbed to the flu like virus that had emerged last year in China.

The heart of the matter

The schedule of the Tokyo Olympics 2020 women's football qualifiers tournament has been altered due to the involvement of the Chinese football team. Due to the outbreak of the coronavirus, the four-team women's tournament comprising of China, Taiwan, Thailand, and Australia was moved hastily from its initial location, Wuhan to Australia.

The Chinese team arrived in Australia on 29th January, 2020 for the tournament and were placed under quarantine in Brisbane till 5th February 2020. As a result, the organisers of the tournament had to make changes to the schedule.

The Chinese team was scheduled to play the Thailand side on 3rd February but now will play their first match on 6th February. In addition to this, the Football Federation Australia (FFA) have kept an additional match day on 12th February when China will take on the host side Australia.

Some other international sports have also been affected by the virus outbreak. LPGA's golf tour Blue Bay event scheduled on Hainan Island from 5th to 8th March 2020 has been cancelled. The LPGA Golf tour released an official statement on the cancellation.

Given the current health concerns and significant travel restrictions put in place due to the coronavirus in China, the LPGA along with our partners in China have made the decision to cancel the 2020 Blue Bay LPGA.RELEASE ⬇️ https://t.co/nVe9MLzv6N

— LPGA (@LPGA) January 31, 2020

The World Indoor Athletics Championships was supposed to be held in Nanjing during 13 - 15 March 2020 but has been postponed until the next year. Tokyo Olympics 2020 qualifying tournaments in Basketball and Boxing have also been moved away from China.