Coronavirus: Denmark expect England friendly to be axed

The Danish Football Union (DBU) expects its national team’s friendly game against England on March 31 to be cancelled following measures taken to address the spread of coronavirus in the Scandinavian country.

On Wednesday, Denmark’s prime minister Mette Frederiksen announced all public activities should be restricted or shut down for two weeks, leading the DBU to cancel all domestic football commitments until March 29.

Denmark have a scheduled match against Faroe Islands in Herning on March 27 before the scheduled trip to Wembley four days later.

In a statement, the DBU said it was prepared for both of those fixtures to be called off.

DBU statutory director Kenneth Reeh added: “Denmark is in a sad and special situation, which of course also affects Danish football. Like everyone else in society, we take the situation very seriously and, of course, take the necessary precautions. That is why we are closing down as many football activities as possible over the next few weeks.

“We do not want to risk passing the infection on to the weakest in the community, nor risk anything for our national team players, our fans or others who work with our national team. We are in dialogue with UEFA regarding the practicalities of both the youth tournaments and the matches of the men’s team and expect clarification as soon as possible.”

England remain scheduled to face Italy at Wembley on March 27 at this stage, despite the latter reporting the highest number of COVID-19 cases in Europe and being placed on lockdown.