All English football suspended until April 30 at the earliest

There will be no professional English football until at least April 30 because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Premier League, EFL and Women's Super League remain on lockdown, but there is a determination to finish the season once football returns and that will be a boost in these desperate times for those holding on to juicy ante-post bets.

Prime minister Boris Johnson said on Thursday that he believes the country can "turn the tide" in 12 weeks, which would be Thursday June 11, but a joint-statement issued by the FA, Premier League and EFL expressed "a commitment to finding ways of resuming the 2019-20 season" and completing all domestic and European matches "as soon as it is safe and possible to do so".

The FA have agreed the current season can be "extended indefinitely" despite current rules stating the season ends on June 1. Reports have suggested the leagues may resume with matches taking place without spectators present.

Turkish football fell into line with nearly every other European country on Thursday by postponing their matches, although action is still taking place in Belarus, albeit behind closed doors as their season started on Thursday with a surprise defeat for Bate Borisov.

Most sporting events have bitten the dust in recent weeks and the F1 season, which stalled on the starting grid when the Australian Grand Prix was cancelled just hours before practice was due to start, has been hit with a further delay.

The Dutch, Spanish and prestigious Monaco events were all postponed on Thursday, with the sport's summer shutdown brought forward to potentially allow more races to be moved towards the end of the season.

The first race is now set to be the Azerbaijan GP on June 7 and the rule changes due to come in for 2021 have been put back to the following season. Teams will continue to use the 2020 regulations for the remainder of this season as well as next year.

"Formula 1 and the FIA expect to begin the 2020 Championship season as soon as it's safe to do so after May and will continue to regularly monitor the ongoing COVID-19 situation," said a joint FIA and F1 statement.

Olympic officials are refusing to call off the 2020 Games just yet with Lord Coe suggesting it is too early to decide on a cancellation, although he conceded delaying them was an option.

The Olympics are set to start in Tokyo on July 24.

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