The AFC’s under-16 and under-19 Championships, due to be held respectively in Bahrain and Uzbekistan, will not now go ahead.

Also cancelled are the AFC Futsal Championship in Kuwait and the AFC Beach Soccer Asian Cup in Thailand.

In a statement, the AFC said: "Taking into consideration the uncertainty and risks in view of the current pandemic, the AFC has decided to cancel a number of competitions to safeguard the interests of all stakeholders.

"In line with FIFA’s decision to cancel the FIFA under-17 and under-20 World Cups in 2021 and taking into consideration the safety and health of Asia’s youth players, the AFC has reluctantly decided to cancel the AFC under-16 Championship Bahrain 2020 and the AFC under-19 Championship Uzbekistan 2020."

The next editions of both competitions will be allocated to the same hosts in 2023, when the Uzbekistan Football Association will host the AFC under-20 Asian Cup and Bahrain Football Association will stage the AFC under-17 Asian Cup.

The rescheduled futsal and beach events will be staged by their original hosts.

"Both the Kuwait Football Association and the Football Association of Thailand will host the next editions," the AFC added.

Kuwait will stage the AFC Futsal Asian Cup 2022 and Thailand, the AFC Beach Soccer Asian Cup 2023.

Dato’ Windsor John, the AFC general secretary, said: "We are grateful for the support of the hosts for these competitions who agreed with the AFC the need to safeguard the interests of all stakeholders during this time of uncertainty and taking into consideration the risks of the current pandemic."

The AFC has also decided to reschedule the qualifying rounds for the AFC under-20 Women’s Asian Cup 2022 and AFC under-17 Women’s Asian Cup 2022.

The biggest AFC Champions League will be held in the west and east regions, while the expanded AFC Cup will be staged across five AFC zones.

The AFC Champions League group stage west region matches have been scheduled for between April 14 and 30, while the east region are planned for April 21 to May 7.

The centralised AFC Cup Group Stage will kick off in the south, central and east Zones on May 14 before the west zone commences on May 23.

The ASEAN zone games are scheduled to take place from June 22 to 28.

Each team in this year’s AFC Cup Group Stage will compete in a single match round-robin format.

The round of 16 in the AFC Champions League 2021 - which will feature 40 teams for the first time in history - will run from September 13 to 15 and the quarter-finals from September 27 to 29.

Both rounds will be played as single matches.

The AFC Champions League semi-finals will be over two legs on October 19 to 20 and 26 to 27.

The AFC Cup 2021 west zonal semi-finals will be held on September 13 to 14 with the second leg scheduled to take place two weeks later.

The ASEAN zonal semi-finals will take place on Aug 10 to 11 over a single leg.

The two-legged zonal final involving south, central and east clubs is scheduled for August 11 and 25, with the ASEAN single-leg zonal final planned for August 25, before the two-legged west zonal final takes place on October 20 and November 3.

The two-legged Inter-zonal semi-finals are scheduled for September 14 to 15 and 28 to 29, with the inter-zonal final to be staged on October 20 and November 3.

The AFC Champions League will hold its two-leg final on November 21 and 27, while the AFC Cup Final will take place on November 26.

Windsor John added: "Once again, the AFC will put the safety and welfare of all its stakeholders as its overriding priority, but we demonstrated with the successful AFC Champions League in 2020 that the unity, solidarity and strong leadership of the AFC can deliver its club competitions in the most challenging of times."