UEFA Unveils Return to Play Plan

(ATR) European football’s governing body agrees to a return of its club and national team competitions derailed by the coronavirus pandemic.

The UEFA Executive Committee, meeting via videoconference on Wednesday, decided on the regulations, format, calendar and venues for a variety of competitions including the Champions League, Europa League, Women’s Champions League, and EURO 2020.

A medical protocol was approved with detailed guidelines to be finalized in the next few weeks. Testing for Covid-19 will be a part of the process.

For now, the matches will be played behind closed doors but UEFA President Aleksander Čeferin is hopeful that could change by the time the competitions resume in August.

"We will assess the situation at the beginning of July and we will see what the situation will be," he told reporters during a videoconference after the executive committee meeting.Čeferin says that UEFA will make a decision by "mid-July for sure".

The major club tournaments will each be completed in a final eight straight knockout format at a centralized location.

The quarterfinals, semifinals and final for the Champions League will take place at two venues in Lisbon, Portugal from August 12-23. The remaining round of 16 second-leg matches will be played on August 7-8, pending a decision on whether they will take place at the home team’s stadiums or in Portugal.

Stadiums in Porto and Guimaraes would be added to the Lisbon venues for the round of 16 if needed.

The German cities of Cologne, Duisburg, Düsseldorf and Gelsenkirchen will host the final eight for the Europa League from August 10-21. Round of 16 matches that have yet to be played will take place on August 5-6 either in Germany or at the home team’s venue.

Two round of 16 ties where the first leg has yet to be played have been turned into a one-off at a venue to be determined.

The Women’s Champions League final eight will be held from August 21-30 in Spain, with Bilbao and San Sebastian the host cities.

"For now there is no reason to have a Plan B but we are assessing the situation not week by week but day by day and we will adopt when the time comes and if necessary," said Čeferin.

The schedule for hosting the final for each of the competitions has been pushed back by a year. Istanbul, which was to host the 2020 Champions League final, will do it in 2021. St. Petersburg (2022), Munich (2023) and London (2024) have also agreed to host a year later than originally planned.

For the Europa League, Gdansk, Poland will now host the final in 2021, Sevilla, Spain in 2022 and Budapest in 2023.

The Women’s Champions League finals will now be held in Gothenburg, Sweden (2021), Turin (2022) and Eindhoven, Netherlands (2023).

UEFA on Wednesday also confirmed that the 12 original host cities for EURO 2020 are on board for 2021. UEFA postponed the month-long tournament, set for parts of June and July, by a year to allow domestic leagues to complete their seasons by the end of July.

The national team football windows for October and November will now feature tripleheaders instead of doubleheaders in order to make up for the postponed European Qualifiers Play-Offs.

The UEFA Executive Committee will hold a second day of meetings on Thursday, with the agenda including the qualifying draw procedure for the 2022 FIFA World Cup, club licensing and financial fair play regulations, and UEFA heading guidelines.

Written by Gerard Farek

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