Eu can play til August

UEFA will today tell its members they now want the Champions League and Europa League finals settled by the end of August.

European football’s governing body will host a video conference with the 55 member associations to try to settle how both major competitions will be sorted.

Despite the fact that most of Europe is on lockdown, the body is determined to finish both competitions and will resist calls for them

to be scrapped. The Champions League has four round-of-16 second legs to still play and the Europa League has all the second legs and two first legs to play from the same stage.

Originally UEFA had wanted their season finished by June

30 but then said it might be later.

The decision will mean a shortened 2020-21 season, which was inevitable anyway.

But UEFA will suggest several options to make the calendar more flexible, such as axing as many as two of the early preliminary rounds of the Europa League, cutting out winter breaks and fewer group games in next term’s Champions League.

UEFA’S working group have already drawn up several options for finishing this season’s competitions, including playing behind closed doors and at weekends.

There are options for the quarter-final stages of each competition to be played over one leg with the venue decided on a coin toss.

And for the semifinals and finals, there are proposals that each be played as a four-team tournament over four days at the current venues of Istanbul and Gdansk. FIFA president Gianni Infantino has promised to dip into their £2.2bn reserves to help football across the world.

He said: “FIFA is in a strong financial situation and it’s our duty to do the utmost to help them in their hour of need.”