LONDON (AP) — The Latest on the coronavirus outbreak’s affect on sports around the globe (all times local):
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10:10 a.m.
The Swiss hockey league has ended the season in the top two divisions before the playoffs because of the spreading coronavirus.
The league’s decision comes less than two months before Switzerland is due to host the world championships in Zurich and Lausanne.
The league says decisions on awarding titles, and promotion and relegation places, will be decided at a special meeting on Friday.
The Swiss soccer leagues have been suspended through March, and Basel is unable to host a Europa League game next week against Eintracht Frankfurt.
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10:05 a.m.
After the NBA suspended its season, the Euroleague is considering doing the same.
The league says it is consulting with clubs about a suspension, something which its players are demanding.
“Euroleague and the participating clubs cannot ask from players to put their health and that of their families at risk,” the Euroleague Players Association said.
The players’ union asked for the season to be suspended “until health, safety and freedom of movement can be guaranteed.”
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10 a.m.
The Juventus player who tested positive for the coronavirus says he’s “OK” and wants “to reassure everyone who is worrying about me.”
Juventus announced late Wednesday that defender Daniele Rugani and “those who have had contact with him” are being isolated. It also said Rugani is not showing any symptoms of the disease.
Rugani sent a post on Twitter overnight in Italian.
“You’ll have read the news and that’s why I want to reassure everyone who is worrying about me. I’m OK. I want to remind everyone to respect the rules, because this virus doesn’t make distinctions! Let’s do it four ourselves, for those dear to us and for those around us,” he wrote.
Rugani is the first player in the country’s top soccer division to test positive for the virus.
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9:55 a.m.
The season-ending men’s World Cup ski races were canceled Thursday to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, giving Norwegian skier Aleksander Aamodt Kilde his first overall title.
Giant slalom and slalom races were scheduled for this weekend in Kranjska Gora, near Slovenia’s border with Italy.
The cancellations mean Henrik Kristoffersen, another Norwegian, becomes the season champion in both disciplines by tiny margins.
A four-race finals week in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, was canceled last week by the International Ski Federation.
“The health and welfare of the athletes and all other participants, as well as the general public are in the forefront and the priority of FIS and all stakeholders,” the governing body said Thursday.
Kilde’s runner-up finish in what proved to be the season-ending race — a downhill last Saturday in Kvitfjell, Norway — lifted him to the overall title above French rival Alexis Pinturault.
Pinturault also finished runner-up to Kristoffersen in giant slalom. Another Frenchman, Clement Noel, was runner-up to Kristoffersen for the season-long slalom title by only two points, 552-550.
Kristoffersen had an outside chance of winning the overall title if the final two races had gone ahead.
Kilde succeeds Austrian great Marcel Hirscher, who won eight straight overall titles before retiring in the offseason.
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