Coronavirus stalls Premier League pre-season plans to tour Asia
The Coronavirus is threatening to disrupt Premier League clubs’ plans for lucrative pre-season tours in Asia this summer.
The Far East — particularly China — has become a popular destination for top-flight clubs for summer training camps as they look to capitalise financially on the huge lure of the league in that part of the world.
The virus, which originated in China’s Hubei province, has killed close to 500 people, with another 24,500 people across 25 countries infected.
Pre-season plans are usually finalised at this time of year but clubs who intended to head to Asia, in particular China, are delaying confirming their travel due to the health concerns.
Sportsmail understands at least one Premier League club with strong Asian connections have, for the time being, banned all business-related travel to the region because of the virus.
Last year, Manchester City, Manchester United, Newcastle, Tottenham, West Ham and Wolves were among the top-flight clubs who went on summer tours to Asia. The aforementioned clubs all spent periods in China.
There is obvious concern from clubs’ medical departments and decisions will be guided by the Foreign Office’s official advice. As it stands, the government are advising against ‘all travel to Hubei Province, and against all but essential travel to the rest of mainland China’.
The Foreign Office, however, are not officially advising against travel to other Asian countries — despite the fact that Coronavirus cases have been reported in Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore — all of which have been popular destinations for English clubs in recent years.
Two people have died of the disease outside of mainland China – one in Hong Kong and one in the Philippines.
There remains hope that the threat will ease in time for clubs to press ahead with plans of Far East tours – and medical staff are being regularly updated by the World Health Organisation with regards to when the outbreak is announced over.
Nevertheless, the Shanghai Sports Federation on Wednesday recommended that all sporting events in the Chinese city be suspended until the ongoing epidemic is declared over.
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The World Indoor Athletics Championships, due to take place in Nanjing on March 13-15 has been cancelled, while snooker’s China Open, set to take place in Beijing between March 30 and April 5, has also been postponed.