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The Tokyo Olympics would have to be scrapped if the already postponed event cannot be held next year, the head of International Olympic Committee has said, according to Al Jazeera. 

In March, the IOC and Japanese government took the unprecedented decision to postpone the Olympics, which had been due to start in July 2020, for a year due to the coronavirus pandemic.

However, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has said the multi-sports event cannot take place in 2021 unless the virus is contained and IOC president Thomas Bach said he understood his position.

"Quite frankly, I have some understanding for this, because you can't forever employ 3,000 or 5,000 people in an organising committee," Bach told BBC Sport in an interview published on Wednesday.

"You can't, every year, change the entire sports schedule worldwide of all the major federations. You can't have the athletes being in uncertainty."

Bach said Abe has "made it clear to him that there is no plan B" if the games are further delayed.