Uefa calls meeting to discuss future of football

A meeting to help plot European football’s path through the coronavirus pandemic has been called for tomorrow.

Uefa has invited the leaders of its 55 national member associations to a video conference starting at 11am UK time to receive an update from working groups set up on March 17 in the wake of the Covid-19 crisis.

One working group is looking at how the 2019-20 fixture calendar can be completed, while the other was focused on economic and regulatory issues such as adjustments to player contracts and transfer windows.

A decision was taken to postpone Euro 2020 until the summer of 2021 at that March 17 meeting, alongside

“Discussing matters such as contracts and transfers”

a commitment to completing domestic and European club competitions by June 30.

That target now looks optimistic in the extreme, with the continent still in the grip of the pandemic.

It was confirmed on Wednesday that there have now been more coronavirus-related deaths in Spain than in China, where the outbreak originated.

It has been reported that one proposal that member associations will be asked to consider would involve finishing the 2019-20 season in August and then playing a shortened 2020-21 campaign, to avoid that season overlapping with the new dates for Euro 2020.

A Uefa statement read: “The meeting will look at developments across all Uefa national team and club competitions, as well as discussing progress at Fifa and European level on matters such as player contracts and the transfer system.”