World Football Summit postponed due to Coronavirus outbreak

Football Reporter|Published 5 years ago

Leandro Martinez of Ecuador's Barcelona, left, and Giorgian De Arrascaeta of Brazil's Flamengo fight for the ball during a Copa Libertadores soccer match in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Wednesday, March 11, 2020. Photo: AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo Leandro Martinez of Ecuador's Barcelona, left, and Giorgian De Arrascaeta of Brazil's Flamengo fight for the ball during a Copa Libertadores soccer match in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Wednesday, March 11, 2020. Photo: AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo

CAPE TOWN – Organisers of the World Football Summit (WFS) on Thursday announced that the event would be postponed.

The event was scheduled to be held in Durban on March 17-18.

The announcement was made in the light of the COVID-19 outbreak, which has been officially declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO).

Organisers said in the statement: “We have been forced to take the difficult decision to postpone the celebration of WFS Africa.

After closely monitoring the evolving coronavirus outbreak and assessing the risk to our visitors, we have concluded, together with the provincial government of KwaZulu-Natal, our main partner, that this is the only way to guarantee the well-being of all our visitors.”

“During the last few months we have strived to put together an event of the calibre that the African football industry deserves.

We were extremely excited with our first-ever African summit and looking forward to welcoming the continent’s most relevant leaders and stakeholders.”