LONDON: This year’s International Champions Cup (ICC) exhibition has been cancelled due to the coronavirus, the marketing company that owns and operates the competition announced on Friday.

“The lack of clarity of when social distancing and shelter-in-place restrictions will be lifted and the uncertain international football calendar made the staging of the tournament unfeasible”, Relevent Sports chief executive Daniel Sillman said in a statement.

Many of Europe’s currently-suspended domestic leagues, as well as the European Champions League, hope eventually to complete their seasons this year.

The ICC, which began in 2013, has been played in July and August in the United States and beyond.

It has featured most of Europe’s leading clubs, and many of the games have attracted massive crowds, including 109,000 for a Real Madrid versus Manchester United contest in Michigan in 2014.

But the New York Times reported in January that the Cup has not been profitable for the owners, who were threatening to pull the plug unless teams started taking it more seriously.

Published in Dawn, April 12th, 2020