London, Apr 29 (IANS): Starting with smaller events would be the way to go to restart sports after the coronavirus pandemic, according to a public health advisor to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Sports across the world has come to a standstill due to the pandemic, leading to huge financial losses to organisers and hosts at various levels.

"The bigger the match, the bigger the competition, the more complicated those mitigating actions will have to be - and therefore the less likely it is that they can be done safely," Dr Brian McCloskey told BBC Sport.

"So, an event that involves lots of travel across the country, or between countries, is much more complicated.

"A local event - community football, community running - is much easier to see how that happens. Bigger events will be a challenge this summer."

Some of the biggest events to have gone into a freeze include the lucrative European football competitions like the UEFA Champions League and England's Premier League.

Additionally, the 2020 edition of the Euro has been postponed to 2021 while tennis' Wimbledon has been cancelled for the first time since the Second World War. Uncertainty looms over both the remaining tennis Grand Slams while Formula 1 season is also yet to take off.

Most notably, the Tokyo Olympics has been postponed to 2021. While many health experts have expressed doubts on whether it can start on the new date of July 23, McCloskey said that a vaccine for the virus may be available before that.

"We've got 15 months to go. A vaccine would be critical and there is a very good chance we will have one before we get to Tokyo in 2021," he said.

"It's a matter, again, of looking at the risks and deciding if you can make them low enough to be acceptable. Vaccine changes it completely, makes it much safer, much easier. But even without a vaccine, it is still possible to do it."