Champions League and Euro 2020 in Jeopardy as Teams Enter Quarantine

Real Madrid joined Juventus in isolation after contact with an athlete who tested positive for the coronavirus, and UEFA said it would meet to discuss the effects on its competitions. The Champions League, the richest, grandest tournament in club soccer, and other top competitions faced an uncertain future Thursday as positive tests and growing wariness about exposure to the novel coronavirus continued to wreak havoc on the global sports calendar. European soccer’s governing body said it would meet next week to determine the fate of this summer’s European championship, a sprawling tournament in which 24 teams would visit 12 countries. The Champions League faced the prospect of being suspended after Real Madrid became the latest of Europe’s elite teams to go into quarantine.

More than a dozen competitions in Europe and the Americas have already said they will temporarily suspend play. In Spain, Real Madrid confirmed in a statement on Thursday morning that one of its basketball players had tested positive for the coronavirus, and that as a result all of the club’s sporting operations were being suspended. The basketball team shares a training facility with its soccer team, so the restrictions were applied to both teams. On Wednesday, another Champions League contender, the Italian champion Juventus, confirmed its players were going into isolation after one member of the squad, defender Daniele Rugani, had tested positive for the virus.

Inter Milan, which lost to Juventus in a game held behind closed doors on Sunday, announced a few minutes later that it, too, was suspending all sporting activity. Soon after Real Madrid announced it was entering quarantine, Spain’s top soccer league announced that it was postponing the next two match days. Italy has already stopped its season temporarily, one of the many leagues and competitions around the world struggling to proceed with their schedules because of the global pandemic. On Thursday, the top American league, Major League Soccer, announced it was suspending play for 30 days, effective immediately, and leagues in Portugal, Norway, Belgium, Denmark, Scotland and the Netherlands did the same.

In Europe, the Champions League, which annually features top teams like Liverpool, Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Paris St. -Germain, is in the middle of its round of 16. UEFA, the European governing body for soccer, does not expect Real Madrid and Juventus to fulfill their Champions League fixtures next week. Real Madrid had been scheduled to face Manchester City of England, and Juventus was to meet the French team Lyon in the second leg of its round-of-16 matchup on Tuesday.