Virus puts China game on brink
Travel companies have stopped selling packages to the AFL’s China game amid growing fears of the coronavirus.
Travel companies have stopped selling packages to the AFL’s China game amid growing fears of the coronavirus.
One agency contacted by The Australian said they had frozen ticket deals because there was a chance the game could be abandoned.
The Australian has established both Port Adelaide and St Kilda want the AFL to make a call on Shanghai showdown, scheduled for May 31, before the March 19 start of the home-and-away season.
It comes as the World Health Organisation on Tuesday urged international medical authorities to prepare for the coronavirus outbreak to become a “pandemic potential”.
The deadly respiratory virus has reportedly plateaued in China despite new cases being discovered in Europe and the Middle East.
The death toll has increased to 2595, according to the WHO, from 79,331 cases globally. An AFL spokesman said the league’s No 1 priority was “the health and safety of all our people”.
“We will continue to take advice from the Australian Government and World Health Organisation regarding any health and safety precautions related to travel to China in May,” he said. “Our planning for the Shanghai match on May 31 continues, with the situation being closely monitored.”
Despite the hefty financial hit, should the game not go ahead as planned, Port Adelaide said they would not put players, staff or fans at risk under current health and travel warnings for China.
Port Adelaide chief executive Keith Thomas said he hoped a decision would be reach by around the middle of the next month.
“There are probably a couple of factors, the first is the football factor and if it is wholly based on that we have more time,” he said after the MG sponsorship was announced.
“If we were just considering footy we could probably make a decision in May but it’s not, it’s about giving people confidence that they can travel to China and that we can hold an event in China that is safe.
“We will have to make that decision sooner. My view is that sort of in March is the very latest that we can go and I would have thought that would be mid-March.”
But the decision could ultimately rest with the Chinese government, which has already imposed strict rules and curfews on citizens in a bid to contain the virus.
Shanghai’s government-run sporting bureau earlier in the month urged all organisations to abandon or postpone events scheduled for the city until the outbreak is over.
It led to the cancellation of the Shanghai F1 and Hong Kong 7s.
Local sports grounds in Shanghai remain closed also.
• Christian Petracca has given Melbourne a timely boost ahead of the AFL season, re-signing with the Demons until the end of 2022.
The explosive midfielder-forward was due to come out of contract at season’s end but has put pen to paper on a two-year extension. Petracca, the No 2 draft pick in 2014, has booted 79 goals in 85 AFL games and can play both through the midfield and up forward.
He kicked 22 goals in 2019, finished fifth in Melbourne’s best and fairest and is expected to kick on with more midfield time in 2020.
Collingwood have handed reinvigorated utility Chris Mayne an AFL contract extension, a little more than two years after they attempted to get rid of him and his hefty pay packet.
The new deal will see Mayne, who was already contracted for 2020, remain at the Magpies until at least the end of the 2021 season.
additional reporting: AAP
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