AFC president Mohamed Bin Hammam stated via Twitter on Sunday that Champions League games scheduled for this week in Nagoya and Kashima would be indefinitely suspended to allow the country time to recover from the devastating disaster. Nagoya Grampus was due to play United Arab Emirates' club Al Ain on Tuesday and Kashima Antlers was slated to host Australia's Sydney FC on Wednesday.
“I want to announce that AFC will postpone AFC Champions League matches in Japan until further notice,” stated Bin Hammam. “AFC will make an announcement after taking stock of the situation in the near future. This is a personal tragedy for me and I feel their pain. My thoughts are with the people of Japan in this very difficult hour.”
The domestic J-League has also been suspended while the Japan national team’s football friendlies against Montenegro on March 25 and New Zealand on March 29 are in doubt. Other sporting events have been called off, including baseball games in Tokyo, Chiba and Yokohama, and a special committee meeting investigating match-fixing in sumo wrestling has also been delayed.
However, the International Skating Union stated on Friday that it had no immediate plans to cancel the figure skating world championships in Tokyo, scheduled to begin on March 21.
