Solskjaer: United would back English shutdown

Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has said health concerns must be the top priority and that the club would back a suspension of English Premier League matches over the coronavirus pandemic.

Italy's Serie A has been suspended while France's Ligue 1 and Spanish La Liga games are being played without fans as Europe grapples with the outbreak that has killed over 4,000 people globally and infected more than 119,000.

The Times reported on Wednesday that all Premier League and lower-division matches in England are to be played without fans and Solskjaer said he would understand if the authorities also called for a suspension.

"Yes, I'd understand it in the circumstances," Solskjaer told reporters ahead of Thursday's Europa League last-16, first-leg match against LASK in Austria, which is being played without fans.

"Of course it's up to the experts to decide and the main concern must be the health of the general public. And the decision that will be made we will back."

On the decision to play United's Europa League match in Linz in an empty stadium, Solskjaer said: "These are difficult circumstances not just for football but in the whole society so we have to do what we're told and get on with the game if that's what the authorities think.

"And the players have been the same, they have prepared for the game as we normally do. We're going to have to create our own atmosphere within the team, within the game."

South America's soccer federations asked FIFA on Wednesday to delay their qualifying matches for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar because of the pandemic.

"The South American teams risk not being able to count on players they have picked and who play in Europe because they, arriving from countries with a high level of contagion, could be placed in quarantine," said a letter from CONMEBOL, South American soccer's governing body, to FIFA secretary-general Fatma Samoura.

Qualifying matches are due to begin on March 26. The letter said it expressed the position of CONMEBOL's 10 members.

Agencies