LONDON (REUTERS) - Manchester City's English Premier League home match against Arsenal on Wednesday (March 11) has been postponed because players from the London club have had contact with the owner of Greek side Olympiakos, who has contracted the coronavirus.
"Manchester City's Premier League fixture at home to Arsenal has been postponed," the club said in a statement.
"The decision to postpone tonight's game has been taken as a precautionary measure on medical advice, after it emerged that personnel from Arsenal FC have come into contact with the Olympiakos owner, Evangelos Marinakis, who has been named as a positive case of Covid-19."
Marinakis, who also owns English Championship side Nottingham Forest, said on Tuesday he had contracted the coronavirus.
The first postponement in the Premier League, which has a worldwide following of billions of TV viewers, comes after Uefa's Champions League and Europa League were both forced to arrange matches behind closed doors.
Football's top-flight Serie A and all other sports have been put on hold in Italy, which is under national lockdown as virus cases soar.
Matches in the top two divisions in Spain and France will be played behind closed doors for at least the next two weeks, officials announced on Tuesday.
On Wednesday, the French League said the League Cup final between Paris St-Germain and Lyon, scheduled for April 4, has been postponed.
In Portugal, this weekend's games will go ahead but behind closed doors, while the Swiss league is on hold until March 23.
In Asia, football has been suspended in China, South Korea and Japan, and the AFC Champions League schedule heavily disrupted.
Arsenal were knocked out of the Europa League by Olympiakos in late February in the round of 32.
Globally, more than 116,000 people have been infected by the coronavirus and over 4,000 have died, according to a Reuters tally of government announcements.
But Arsenal said the players and staff, who met Marinakis after the game at the Emirates Stadium, will return to work on Friday ahead of Saturday's trip to Brighton.
"The medical advice we have received puts the risk of them developing Covid-19 at extremely low," it added.
Olympiakos players, backroom staff and board members have all tested negative, the club said in a statement on Wednesday.
The Premier League called the move a "precautionary measure" and said there were no plans to postpone any other games.
Arsenal's opponents on Saturday, struggling Brighton, tweeted that their game was still on.
"Albion's match against Arsenal this Saturday remains scheduled to go ahead as planned, in line with government advice, and following consultation with the Premier League and medical advisers. #BHAFC," they tweeted.
The postponement means Liverpool's hopes of winning their first top-flight title since 1990 without kicking a ball have been dashed.
However, should City lose to Burnley on Saturday, Jurgen Klopp's side can seal their first Premier League title on Monday with the added spice they can do so by beating city rivals Everton.
On Tuesday, Olympiakos' next Europa League opponents, another Premier League side Wolverhampton Wanderers, said that their request to the European football governing body to postpone their Europa League last-16, first leg had been rejected.
Wolves had said that the trip to Greece posed unnecessary risks to their "players, staff, supporters and the families of all who travel, at such critical and uncertain times".
The game is one of several European fixtures that will be played without supporters.
Wolves manager Nuno Espirito Santo said postponing the game made more sense than playing behind closed doors.
"What's the point of football? It's entertainment. Playing behind closed doors doesn't make sense," he told Sky Sports.
"Now it's more than football. It's a social situation and everybody's worried and I think something has to be done.
"I think closing doors in stadiums is not the solution because it's not normal. We are pretending to live a normal life when things are not normal. The point I am trying to make is - is there another solution for it? Why not stop?"
