BEIJING, March 5 -- The Chinese women's football team is to fly back to China from Sydney, Australia on Thursday evening after its Olympic qualification playoffs against South Korea were proposed to be postponed to June amid COVID-19 concerns.

The two-legged playoffs were scheduled to take place in April. However, due to the escalating spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) in South Korea, the Chinese Football Association (CFA) and its South Korean counterpart agreed to put off the two ties until June in a proposal submitted to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for approval, a CFA source told Xinhua.

The Chinese side had chosen Sydney as the place to play its home leg of the playoffs against South Korea.

"Considering Australian government has expanded its coronavirus travel ban to include South Korea on Thursday, there is no need for the Chinese side to remain in Sydney to play its home leg," the source said. "We hope they can play the home leg at home in China."

Under Australia's revised bans to be in place until March 14, anyone who has been in the Chinese mainland, Iran or South Korea will not be allowed into Australia for 14 days from the time they left those areas.

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