GENEVA, March 13 (Xinhua) -- The European Champions League, along with the Europa League, will not take place next week due to the spread of the COVID-19, the European football governing body UEFA announced on Friday.

"In the light of developments due to the spread of COVID-19 in Europe and related decisions made by different governments, all UEFA club competitions matches scheduled next week are postponed," read a statement.

The postponed competitions include the remaining UEFA Champions League, Round of 16 second leg matches scheduled on 17 and 18 March 2020; all UEFA Europa League, Round of 16 second leg matches scheduled on 19 March 2020, and all UEFA Youth League quarterfinal matches scheduled on 17 and 18 March 2020.

Further decisions on when these matches take place will be communicated in due course.

As a consequence of the postponements, the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League quarterfinal draws scheduled for 20 March have also been postponed.

UEFA yesterday invited representatives of its 55 member associations, together with the boards of the European Club Association and the European Leagues and a representative of FIFPro, to a videoconference meeting on Tuesday 17 March to discuss European football's response to the outbreak.