- guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 28 April 2009 13.28 BST
Swine flu fears are disrupting football tournaments in Mexico. Photograph: Oleg Popov/Reuters
The remainder of a youth football tournament in Mexico has been cancelled because of fears about swine flu. Mexico City's leading clubs said they will decide this week whether to play matches behind closed doors in an effort to slow the outbreak, as sport reacts to fears of an epidemic.
Concacaf, the governing body in North and Central America and the Caribbean, said its Under-17 tournament in the border city of Tijuana has been called off. Costa Rica, Honduras, Mexico and the United States had already won places in the Under-17 World Cup. They were due to play semi-finals tomorrow, with the finals and third-place game scheduled for Saturday.
Concacaf has postponed the second leg of tomorrow's Champions League final in Cancún between Cruz Azul and Atlante until 12 May. Atlante lead 2-0 from the first leg. Concacaf said the move was "to safeguard the health of players, officials and fans".
Three games involving Mexico City clubs were played behind closed doors over the weekend. Decio de María, the secretary general of the Mexican football federation, said officials will announce plans tomorrow, adding that all nine first-division games are likely to be played, with fans or without.
"The idea is to look for the fewest number of games that have to be played behind closed doors," he said. "If it's necessary, we'll play all the matches behind closed doors. We don't foresee cancelling any games."
Mexico's national team, under new coach Javier Aguirre, have closed their training sessions to the public.
Fear of the flu virus is following Mexican clubs as they travel abroad. Chivas arrived in Santiago yesterday and, like others leaving the plane, players were scanned by a device to detect high fevers and had to fill out health questionnaires.
Chivas are due to play Chilean club Everton tomorrow in the Copa Libertadores. This is the final round of group play, and both teams can still qualify for the knockout rounds.
Chivas team officials have said little about players' activities in Chile, but the Santiago newspaper El Mercurio said players may be confined to their hotel. Mexico's team doctor, Narciso López, said players would eat separately from other guests.
Meanwhile, Arsenal's Mexican striker Carlos Vela has travelled to Manchester ahead of tomorrow's Champions League semi-final after spending a day in quarantine due to fears over the outbreak.
The 20-year-old was told to stay away from training yesterday after a visit by some Mexican friends last week.
Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger said: "It looked to be a massive problem because we were asked yesterday to keep him at home and not get him to the training ground. Now he has the all-clear and today he was free again to attend training. It was basically down to the fact he had visitors from Mexico, friends who came to visit him last week."
