CONCACAF suspends all tournaments

MIAMI, Florida, CMC – CONCACAF has moved to immediately suspend all its competitions for the next 30 days, just 24 hours after halting the Champions League due to the deadly coronavirus outbreak.

In a statement yesterday, the continental governing body for football in North, Central American and the Caribbean said the decision was made following a conference call of its executive council on Thursday.

“Given the constantly evolving public health situation, and global concerns about the spread of COVID-19, the CONCACAF Council convened yesterday via a conference call,” the statement said.

“During the meeting the decision was made to suspend all upcoming CONCACAF competitions scheduled to take place over the next 30 days.

“The CONCACAF Council took these decisions with the welfare of everyone involved in mind, and in light of developing travel restrictions and public health guidance.”

The decision means the Men’s Olympic Qualifiers set to begin March 20, the first round of the 2021 Gold Cup Qualifiers scheduled to kick off March 26 and the Caribbean Club Shield carded for April 3-12 in Curacao will now be delayed indefinitely.

On Thursday, CONCACAF said the Champions League which is at the quarter-final stage, would be postponed.

The coronavirus, or COVID-19, was declared a pandemic earlier this week, and has already infected 138 500 people and caused over 5 000 deaths worldwide.

In the Caribbean, Jamaica has already recorded eight cases of the virus with Antigua, St Vincent, Guyana and Trinidad also reporting single cases.

CONCACAF said it would continue to monitor the situation in coming weeks and was “committed to working with key stakeholders to consider options on how and when to reconvene these competitions and any new decision will be communicated in due course.”