The I-League has been postponed after an outbreak of the Covid-19 within the tournament’s bio-bubble, the All India Football Federation (AIFF) said in a statement on Wednesday. The federation further said that a decision on resumption will be taken on January 4 or 5 after the results of a scheduled second round of tests for players, officials and staff are announced.

An emergency AIFF League Committee meeting was called on Tuesday after the cases emerged within what was reported to be the Novotel Hotel which is one of three bio-secure venues set up for the league.

“The Committee deliberated at length about the current situation wherein positive cases have been detected among participating teams in the ongoing Hero I-League 2021-22, and also took into serious consideration Dr. Mahajan’s (Harsh Mahajan, a member of the AIFF Sports Medical Committee) suggestions to adhere to medical parameters, and move forward together without making any compromise on the health of the players which is of paramount importance,” the AIFF said in its statement.

“Dr. Mahajan, informed that there needs to be bare minimum contact among all for the next 5-7 days as studies indicate that both the Delta and Omicron variant can be passed onto other human bodies within the period.

“Acting on the advice, the Committee hence, unanimously decided to postpone the Hero I-League 2021-22 matches for the next round which were scheduled on December 30-31, 2021,” it further said.

All players who have tested positive have been moved to isolation with AIFF “monitoring and arranging for subsequent regular medical consultations”.

All players, officials and staff have been tested once and will go through another round of testing on January 1 and 3 and the federations expects the results to come on January 4.