China rules out hosting most international sport in 2020

The General Administration of Sport (GAS) says, except for Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic test events, ‘and other important events, in principle, no other international sports events will be held this year’

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China will not host any major international sporting events in 2020. Photo: Reuters

Published: 12:43pm, 10 Jul 2020Updated: 10:11pm, 10 Jul 2020

China will not hold most international sporting events for the rest of 2020 as part of measures to stop the spread of coronavirus, the government said on Thursday, dealing a potential blow to the likes of Formula One and tennis.

Shanghai’s sports authority recently said that it had been offered two Formula One races this year, while several tournaments in China are on the revised tennis calendar.

But China – where coronavirus emerged late last year before spreading globally – appears to have ruled out many of those now happening, despite local infections dwindling markedly.

The General Administration of Sport (GAS) said in a statement that, except for Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic test events “and other important events, in principle, no other international sports events will be held this year”.

China’s highest sporting authority did not specify which competitions will be hit, but the official Xinhua news agency said that “lots of international sport events will be affected”.

This year’s global sporting calendar has been badly disrupted by the pandemic, with the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and Euro 2020 football pushed back to next summer.