Premier League calls off Man City v Arsenal match over coronavirus
The league said that the decision followed the announcement on Tuesday that the owner of English second-tier club Nottingham Forest and Greek side Olympiakos, Evangelos Marinakis, tested positive to the virus.”Thirteen days ago, Olympiakos played Arsenal at Emirates Stadium in the UEFA Europa League and Mr Marinakis, the Greek club’s owner, met with several Arsenal squad members and staff,” the Premier League said in a statement released in the early hours of Wednesday.
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“Following medical advice, Arsenal FC and Manchester City FC consider it is necessary to postpone their fixture due to be played this evening, Wednesday 11 March, to give time to fully assess the situation.”
The league added that “all necessary measures” were being taken and that there “currently” were no plans to postpone any other matches.
The decision comes after Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola said he would prefer to postpone fixtures than play without fans behind closed doors, like many European leagues are now doing amid the health emergency.
“Does football work without spectators?” he asked on Tuesday. “If the people can’t come there is no sense. We will follow what we have to do but I wouldn’t like to do it without the people.
“In Spain it’s started with the games behind closed doors. It has happened already in Italy. I think it will happen here (in England).”
Britain’s Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) said on Monday that it saw “no rationale” in cancelling or postponing sporting events at this stage.
UEFA and the English Premier League have decided to ban pre-match handshakes as a prevention method and many European matches are now being played behind closed doors this week because of the outbreak. (dpa)
