European football industry like the whole world, generally, suffers from international pandemic. Football tournaments worldwide have been paused because of the worsening of situation caused by Covid-19 in March.
Seasons in national leagues will be finished while the Euro 2020 will be moved to 2021. These are decisions of UEFA agreed by all national associations of Europe.
European countries’ authorities together with the health sphere are forced to accept such measures. The first football association to agree with the suggestion of UEFA about the rescheduling of Euro 2020 till June of 2021 was Norwegian one. This measure will let overall national championships which have already lost two months, to finish the season and not to waste it totally. Officials of UEFA claimed that they care about the lives and health of all staff taking part in the organization tournaments around Europe as well as the successful ending of the season without unnecessary problems and misunderstandings. Anyway, all tournaments and games of UEFA for national teams and clubs, male and female, will be paused until further notice.
UEFA assembled a working group for solving problems related to the rescheduling of the running championships’ season.
Euro 2020 was previously planned to start on June 12, 2020, in 12 cities of Europe what became a new concept for the European tournament.
It’s clear that the European national championship is rescheduled to next year.
The main national leagues of Europe have to finish the actual season that was put on hold until the end of June if it is possible.
As the Champions League play-off stage wasn’t also finished, UEFA moved the final of the main club tournament to August 2020. Play-off games canceled in March will take place in August because this stage must be complete for the determination of the finalists.
Another UEFA big national tournament, Nations League Finals 2021, scheduled on June 2021 now postponed till September 2021.
There’s another question to discuss with FIFA and UEFA officials. European countries are intending to take part in the 2022 World Cup, so there seem to be some problems with the planning of qualifiers. FIFA Club World Cup with 24 clubs playing is also supposed to be organized in 2021. This issue may require another negotiation. Head of FIFA, Gianni Infantino, showed concernment in collaboration with UEFA in the solution of the current and upcoming problems. UEFA is trying to do all necessary to diminish the negative consequences of the pandemic and restrictions related to it. Issues left for further discussion definitely will be solved but due to time.
