April 21 – On the eve of three days of pivotal meetings with all of European football’s main stakeholders, UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin says leagues across the Continent are ready to play behind closed doors in a bid to limit the impact of Covid-19.
Most leagues have been suspended since mid-March due to the pandemic but Ceferin is not yet prepared to throw in the towel.
Ceferin has been meeting today with all of UEFA’s 55 member associations by video conference, to be followed tomorrow by a working group meeting involving the leagues and clubs. Then on Thursday, following an executive committee meeting, UEFA is expected to provide an update to fans across Europe.
“I believe there are options that can allow us to restart cup championships and to complete them,” Ceferin said in an interview with Corriere della Sera.
“It’s too early to say that we can’t complete the season. The impact (of that) would be terrible for clubs and leagues. Better to play behind closed doors than not at all. In such hard times it would bring happiness to people and a certain sense of normality even if the games can only be seen on TV.
“If safety measures are respected and if the authorities give the green light, training could resume. Further consent will be needed for matches.”
Ceferin said that if the green light is given by public health authorities, Champions League and Europa League games could be played “in parallel” but there had to be a time limit. “The priority is the health of fans, players and coaches,” he said.
With the Champions League halfway through the last-16 stage – four of the eight quarter-finalists are so far known – two scenarios are apparently under consideration.
The first, when the last-16 is over, is to play the quarter-finals and semi-finals as two-legged matches as normal, in July and August. The second would be for the games to be played as one-off fixtures whenever the domestic seasons end, squeezing the latter stages of the competition into a week-long mini tournament.
The Europa League is more complicated because all eight last-16 second-leg ties are still to be played.
“We are evaluating a series of options, always based on the dates to restart,” said Ceferin. “It would be difficult [to conclude the season in September or October], it would weight too much on the calendar of the following season.”
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