WATCH: IOC President Bach accepts Games would be cancelled if not held in 2021

In March, the Tokyo 2020 Olympics were postponed to July 23, 2021 as the coronavirus spread across the globe, killing hundreds of thousands of people and making international sports impossible.

Tokyo: The President of the International Olympic Committee, Thomas Bach, said on Wednesday that if the rescheduled Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games does not take place in the summer of 2021, it will then have to be cancelled.

Bach made the comments in an interview for a leading media organisation, in which he refused to speculate on possibility of Games taking place behind closed if social distancing measures were still in place.

In March, the Tokyo 2020 Olympics were postponed to July 23, 2021 as the coronavirus spread across the globe, killing hundreds of thousands of people and making international sport impossible.

"Quite frankly, I have some understanding for (Japan's position) because you cannot forever employ 3,000, or 5,000, people in an organising committee," the International Olympic Committee president said.

IOC

"You cannot every year change the entire sports schedule worldwide for all the major federations.

"You cannot have the athletes being in uncertainty, you cannot have so much overlapping with a future Olympic Games."

Responding to Bach's comments, Tokyo Olympic organizing committee CEO Toshiro Muto spoke on Thursday about the need to take “countermeasures” to combat the coronavirus at next year's postponed games.

Muto acknowledged there is talk about holding next year's Tokyo Olympics without fans, but he did not indicate this was going to happen.

The Olympics have never been cancelled outside of the world wars, but Japanese officials have been clear that they have no intention of postponing the Games again beyond next year.