New York (AFP) – Major League Baseball has cancelled a planned June series in London between the Chicago Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals because of the coronavirus pandemic, league officials announced Wednesday.

The long-time National League rivals were to have played June 13-14 at West Ham United’s London Stadium.

The New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox staged MLB’s first games in Europe at the 2012 Olympic Stadium venue last June.

“The Mitel & MLB Present London Series scheduled for June 13-14 between the Cubs and Cardinals has been cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” MLB said in a statement.

The MLB campaign was to have opened last Thursday but has been pushed back to at least the middle of May due to the deadly virus outbreak.

MLB announced last month that planned games in Mexico City and Puerto Rico had been called off.

MLB team owners and players agreed on business plans for staging a shortened 2020 campaign that include playing at neutral sites, before empty stadiums and staging the playoffs in November at a neutral site, likely a warm-weather venue.