UEFA calls off Champions League matches

Deadly terrorist attacks on New York and Washington had an immediate impact on sports with events cancelled in the United States and Europe and with concern growing for major competitions like golf's Ryder Cup and the Winter Olympics.

The latest casualties were Wednesday evening's prestigious European Champions League football matches which governing body UEFA called off after an emergency meeting at their Swiss headquarters.

"UEFA today annnounced that all UEFA Club competition matches scheduled to be played this week (UEFA Cup and Champions League) are to be postponed as a mark of respect for the victims of yesterday's terrorist attacks in the United States", UEFA said in a statement.

Chief executive Gerhard Aigner said UEFA would continue to monitor the security situation within Europe over the next few days and make a further decision to reschedule the games "in due course".

Eight games in the Champions League were completed yesterday after a minute's silence was observed at each game.

But UEFA decided that the eight remaining games today involving such household names as Manchester United, Bayern Munich and Barcelona could not go ahead as planned.

They also scrapped 43 games counting toward the less prestigious UEFA Cup which were scheduled to be played on Wednesday.

In the immediate aftermath of the carnage major League Baseball cancelled all 15 games scheduled around the United States on Tuesday with no decision on whether the games will be made up.