China announced on Thursday the suspension of all domestic football and postponed indefinitely the top-flight Chinese Super League (CSL) season in response to the deadly viral outbreak sweeping the country. The CSL 2020 campaign had been due to kick off on February 22, but was shelved along with "all types of football matches" in order to "carry out prevention and control of the pneumonia epidemic," said a Chinese Football Association statement. On Wednesday, World Cup skiing races, the first test events for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, were cancelled because of the outbreak. - World Cup qualifying -In Australia, China's women's football team has been quarantined in a Brisbane hotel after arriving for an Olympic qualifying competition which had been originally due to take place in Wuhan. China is due to host the Maldives in a World Cup qualifying match on March 26 and travel to Guam for another qualifier on March 31.

Source: Punch January 30, 2020 06:11 UTC