English football fixtures spanning the Premier League, English Football League, FA Women’s Super League and Women’s Championship have been suspended until at least April 3 in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak.
The Football Association also confirmed that the England National Team fixtures against Italy and Denmark, scheduled for March 27 and March 31 respectively, have been postponed.
The English Football League said in a statement that its clubs had been advised to stop all “non-essential activities”.
The news comes as sports fixtures worldwide are being called off in a bid to curb the spread of the virus. The domestic football leagues in France, Italy and Spain have all been suspended this week, while in the US, all major sporting leagues have either been halted or are playing fixtures behind closed doors.
Elsewhere on Thursday, football’s governing body in Europe, UEFA, confirmed that all of its competitions, including the Champions League and Europa League will be suspended until further notice.
The draws for the next round of fixtures, scheduled for March 20, have also been called off, along with all UEFA Youth League matches
In its statement, UEFA said that further decisions on the scheduling of affected matches “will be communicated in due course”, with a meeting scheduled for March 17 to discuss a broader response to the coronavirus scourge.
On the agenda at the meeting will be the fate of the month-long international Euro 2020 tournament, scheduled to take place between June 12 and July 12.