By Tim Stannard/beIN SPORTS

Canada withdraws from Games as Australia tells athletes to prepare for 2021 as pressure piles on Olympic bosses to move Tokyo games

From the 'Games must go on' to 'let's see if the Games go on' to 'maybe the Games shouldn't go on' to 'well, the Games could go on but there will not be anyone at the Games'.

That's the situation with the 2020 Tokyo Olympics this Monday, just a week after the Japanese Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, insisted that the upcoming games in July would go ahead with no cuts, restrictions or changes to its plans despite the global COVID-19 pandemic. 

At time of writing, one hugely important sporting nation will not be at the Games should they take place as planned in four month's time and another is set to follow. 

Canada's Olympic and Paralympic committee has issued a statement declaring that it will not be sending athletes to the Games this year and called on the Olympics to be postponed to 2021. 

"This is not solely about athlete health - it is about public health," said the statement on a situation where athletes across the world cannot even train properly, nevermind compete. 

The Australian Olympic Committee executive board held a teleconference on Monday and told its athletes to prepare for a 2021 Games and declared that a team couldn't be put together in time for July 2020. Not an easy decision to make considering many of those athletes need a Games this year for funding. 

These two countries add weight to calls from the US Track and Field Association and also US Swimming over the weekend to postpone the Games.

On Monday, the head of World Athletics, Sebastian Coe, has written to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) calling for the Games to be postponed declaring that they are "neither feasible nor desirable."

The IOC has given itself four weeks to make a decision on the fate of the Olympics and on Monday, Shinzo Abe, told the Japanese parliament that the postponement of the Games would be inevitable if they could not be held in a complete way.

Having major countries not participating would do that. 

The Sports Burst live show will be looking at this at 12PM ET and 9AM PT on Facebook Live, Youtube Live and beIN SPORTS XTRA channel. 

Gianni Infantino promises financial support for sport in crisis

FIFA president, Gianni Infantino has spoken to La Gazzetta dello Sport about a rather challenging inbox that now faces the Swiss-Italian. 

It's a to-do list that includes how to coordinate leagues ending in Europe and restarting in other parts of the world. "We will play again when we can do it and without putting anyone's health at risk" - said Infantino. 

Then there's how to condense a soccer calendar of major international tournaments into just one or two years. How to stop smaller clubs going bankrupt in the months to come with no income and regular expenses. 

What about player contracts in Europe set to expire on June 30th, before domestic seasons may have finished? Or the transfer window?  "Measures are needed. We don't have a choice. We will all have to make sacrifices."

Infantino did say that FIFA could help financially to help the sport of soccer in unprecedented tough times. "FIFA is in excellent health and have the resources to do so." 

Those resources are going to be needed as if reports are true that even clubs like Barcelona are having to make huge cost cuts to survive, the future of the game at lower levels looks troubled, to say the least. 

LaLiga announces suspension of league until further notice

Spain's La Liga organization in unison with the country's football federation has announced the "suspension of football competitions" in the country until the government and health authorities declare that it is safe to continue. 

The latest figures at time of writing from Spain's Minister of Health report that there are 33,089 known cases of the COVID-19 coronavirus in the country with the number of deaths at 2,182.