Uefa to consider postponing Euro 2020 until next summer over coronavirus
Uefa is considering postponing the European Championship until 2021 as it attempts to deal with the escalating coronavirus pandemic.
European football’s governing body will meet stakeholders on Tuesday to discuss a series of proposals aimed at solving the growing disruption of the calendar due to Covid-19, with the prospect of Euro 2020 being delayed for a year among the options being considered. It is understood that all options are on the table at this stage, including the possibility that the format of the 24team tournament could be altered or scrapping some of the 12 venues across the continent. Rome is due to host the opening match between Italy and Turkey on 12 June, with Wembley hosting seven matches including the final on 12 July.
Both Bosnia-Herzegovina and Slovakia have requested that this month’s play-off matches, against Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland respectively, be postponed. The two football associations face playing the games with decimated squads should they proceed as planned.
Also under discussion at the videoconference of the 55 national associations will be how to resolve the fixture backlog in the Champions League and Europa League, with the second legs of Real Madrid’s tie against Manchester City and Juventus against Lyon next week having already been postponed indefinitely. That followed the postponement of Sevilla v Roma and Internazionale v Getafe in Thursday night’s Europa League schedule, with Uefa set to consider whether it will be possible to continue with the competitions in their current format or reduce the ties to a single leg on a neutral ground.
La Liga’s decision to suspend action in the Spanish top flight for “at least the next two rounds of matches” came after one of the players in Real’s basketball team tested positive for the virus, leaving all activity at the club’s Valdebebas training ground suspended with immediate effect. It was followed by the Dutch Eredivisie, Portugal’s Primeira Liga and USA’s Major League Soccer, while the Danish FA has decided to stop all football activities in the country until 29 March. “The men’s friendly matches against the Faroe Islands in Herning on 27 March and against England at Wembley on 31 March are expected to be canceled,” read a statement. “Clarified with Uefa.”
England are also due to face Italy in a friendly on 27 March at Wembley. Wales’s friendly against the United States on 30 March has been postponed and the Football Association of Ireland has announced all football activity under its jurisdiction has been suspended until 29 March.
That came after a directive from the Irish government that all outdoor gatherings of more than 500 people should be cancelled. Similarly, a number of Scottish sporting events are set to be postponed or played behind closed doors following an announcement by the first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, that she would recommend the cancellation of gatherings of more than 500 people from Monday. That would mean Sunday’s Old Firm clash between Rangers and Celtic in the Premiership could go ahead as planned.
Meanwhile, the Premier League has insisted that matches will go ahead this weekend in line with new directives from the government despite three Leicester City players having been isolated from the rest of the squad after displaying flu-like symptoms.
Uefa’s position is complicated by the already congested calendar, with the women’s European Championship due to take place next summer in England from 11 July to 1 August, as well as Fifa’s newly expanded Club World Cup in China. There is a possibility that the women’s tournament could also be postponed for a year in order to accommodate any changes.
A statement read: “In the light of the ongoing developments in the spread of Covid-19 across Europe … Uefa has today invited representatives of its 55 member associations, together with the boards of the European Club Association and the European Leagues and a representative of FIFPro, to attend meetings by video-conference on Tuesday 17 March to discuss European football’s response to the outbreak.”
It has also been confirmed that Andrea Agnelli, the Juventus chairman who chairs the powerful European Club Association, is in quarantine after one of the Serie A team’s players – defender Daniele Rugani – tested positive for the virus this week.