Japan football, baseball leagues postponed further due to global spread of coronavirus

Tokyo: The Japanese professional baseball league and football J-League will continue to be postponed due to the global spread of coronavirus, it was announced here on Friday.

Officials of Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) and the J-League announced the postponement of the start and resumption of their respective seasons until May or later, Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun reported.

"The situation is only getting worse," NPB Commissioner Atsushi Saito said at a news conference. "I'm bracing for (further) postponements.J-League Chairman Mitsuru Murai was quoted as saying: "I realize that it's extremely difficult to resume the season under the current schedule."

NPB was hoping to start the season on April 24 after postponing the March 20 season opener to April 10 at the earliest due to outbreak of the coronavirus.

The J-League was originally scheduled to resume official matches in its third division on April 25. The J-League had suspended games after the first round because of the outbreak and announced on March 9 that the season would not restart on March 18 as originally planned. Three baseball players tested positive for the coronavirus and a number of J-League players have also been infected with the coronavirus. The coronavirus pandemic has brought sports to a standstill around the world with even the Tokyo Olympics being postponed to next year. It makes it the first time in the history of the Olympics that an edition has been postponed. IANS

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