What next for club football after change to Euros date?

 

FILE PHOTO: Soccer Football - UEFA Congress - Beurs van Berlage Conference Centre, Amsterdam, Netherlands - March 3, 2020 UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin during the UEFA Congress REUTERS/Yves Herman/File Photo

Uefa’s decision to postpone Euro 2020 for 12 months on Tuesday buys European club football some time to decide how to proceed, but extremely difficult decisions lie ahead on how, if and when to finish the season.

How long the devastating impact of the coronavirus pandemic continues will be the decisive factor.

Europe has become the epicentre of the pandemic, with France joining Italy and Spain in applying strict lockdown measures and European leaders also planning to ban all non-essential travel into the continent.

Uefa’s crisis meeting on Tuesday with its 55 national associations as well as clubs and players bodies agreed on a working group to look at solutions with the hope of still completing the season by June 30.

The end of June is when many players’ contracts and loan deals expire.

“As the governing body of European football, Uefa led the process and made the biggest sacrifice. Moving Euro 2020 comes at a huge cost,” said Uefa president Aleksander Ceferin.

More financial pain for Uefa and Europe’s major clubs could be on the horizon if the Champions League cannot be completed.

Last season Uefa paid out 1.9 billion euros in prize money and TV revenue to clubs competing in the Champions League.

This season’s competition was cut off with only four of the last-16 ties completed and no date has been set for a return to action.

“The focus now will be to come up with solutions to conclude the 2019/20 club season in the most practical manner and, beyond that, ensure football, like society as a whole, returns as quickly as possible to its natural form and rhythm,” said Andrea Agnelli, Juventus CEO and chairman of the European Club Association (ECA).

The Champions League and Europa League may therefore need to be streamlined to reach a conclusion.

Ties from the quarter-finals on could be reduced to one-off games rather than two legs, while the semi-finals and finals could come together like a “final four” format often used in basketball.

That would see both semi-finals and final played over the course of a few days, with the Champions League final due to be in Istanbul and the Europa League final in Gdansk.

“Without any prejudice, those are also options,” said Ceferin. “We have different options, but really it’s far too early to be concrete. Whatever we decide, nothing is sure because we don’t know when this COVID-19 will stop and allow us to play.” With that in mind, Uefa’s goal of finishing by June 30 is highly optimistic.