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In pictures: coronavirus pandemic leaves stadiums standing empty

14-Mar-2020 16:47:07 | Four-Four-Two

Top-level English and Scottish football was suspended until April 3 at the earliest on Friday due to the coronavirus pandemic.The Football Association, the Premier League, the English Football League, FA Womens Super League and FA Womens Championship all agreed to call a halt to competitive action with immediate effect.With numerous other sporting events cancelled, postponed or set to go ahead behind closed doors worldwide, here, the PA news agency takes a look at the scenes as empty stadia stand like ghost towns.A view through gates at St James Park which was originally due to hold Saturdays Premier League match with Sheffield United (Owen Humphreys/PA)Vicarage Road, home of Watford, remains empty after the match with Leicester was off (Jonathan Brady/PA)Contrasting views at Bournemouths Vitality Stadium in September 2019 (top) and March 14 (PA Wire/PA Images)Villa Park stood empty on Saturday, March 14 (Nick Potts/PA)Empty bookmakers joints at Dundalk Stadium, which ran behind closed doors on Friday (PA Wire/PA Images)The Premier League is on lockdown until early April (Martin Rickett/PA)A closed programme stand outside Brightons AMEX Stadium (Gareth Fuller/PA)Wolves Europa League clash at Olympiacos was played behind closed doors (Thanassis Stavrakis/AP)No one in sight at St James Park (Owen Humphreys/PA)The empty Mapei stadium as Sassuolos Serie A match with Brescia was closed to fans (Massimo Paolone/AP)Closed ticket windows at Watfords Vicarage Road (Jonathan Brady/PA)Empty stands as Borussia Monchengladbach hosted Cologne (Martin MeissnerAP)Runners and riders raced in front of empty stands at Dundalk Stadium (PA Wire/PA Images)(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){i['GoogleAnalyticsObject']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){ (i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o), m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m) })(window,document,'script','//www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js','ga'); ga('create', 'UA-72310761-1', 'auto', {'name': 'pacontentapi'}); ga('pacontentapi.set', 'referrer', location.origin); ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension1', 'By Karen Sykes, PA'); ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension2', 'dd6ef275-63e8-4c27-96a3-e99fbba7be33'); ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension3', 'paservice:sport,paservice:sport:football,paservice:sport:uk'); ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension6', 'story-enriched'); ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension7', 'composite'); ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension8', null); ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension9', null); ga('pacontentapi.send', 'pageview', { 'location': location.href, 'page': (location.pathname + location.search + location.hash), 'title': 'In pictures: coronavirus pandemic leaves stadiums standing empty'});