The coronavirus pandemic has meant it has been a very difficult year in the sporting schedule, with many of the biggest events already having been canceled or postponed. This covers a whole range of different sports, in what is a truly unprecedented period of time. Here we cover a number of the world’s leading sports and how they have been affected by the worldwide pandemic.
Football has been one of the major sports affected by the European championships postponed and moved to 2021. The new dates of the competition will now be June 11 to July 11, with punters continuing to support the ante-post markets, with many using the latest paddy power sign up offer that is available. England remains the outright favorites, with the semi-finals and final still set to be hosted at their own Wembley stadium.
This has also led to the 2021 National league finals and under-21 European championships to be postponed. On top of that and the 2020 Copa America has also now been moved to 2021, with the main aim to see the end to domestic leagues. The latter has led to major financial issues for some of the smaller clubs, with UEFA stating that leagues must look to finish their domestic competitions, and this includes the Premier League, which are looking at a date around June to resume.
Both the Olympic Games and Paralympics were also postponed this year, when set to be taking place in Tokyo, Japan. This meant this was the first time this has occurred since the second world war, with both events now being postponed until the summer of 2021. That was announced last month by Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who stated that it must happen due to the ever-rising crises of the coronavirus pandemic.
Rugby Union is another sport to have been severely affected by the pandemic, with the Six nations still looking to complete the final round of fixtures to crown the champion. The Premiership final between Sale and Harlequins was also postponed, following previously being given the go-ahead.
Golf has also seen the Masters at Augusta, and the US PGA both postponed in the year, with other events such as the Players championship being canceled. Many other events have now been postponed and will be looking to reschedule, which is likely to prove troublesome.
It really is a difficult time for sport, with many other events postponed and moved to different dates, such as Formula One and, of course, the London marathon. The latter is now set to take place in October, which continues to be such an important date in the Charity calendar.
