By Andrew Warshaw
June 9 – The monstrous headache over how to complete this season’s Champions League appears to have been significantly eased with reports that Lisbon has been selected by UEFA to host a unique mini-World Cup style tournament over a fortnight in August.
UEFA has not yet formally announced the plans which have been rumoured for several weeks, but it now seems likely that the quarterfinals onwards will take place in the Portuguese capital in what would be a mouth-watering spectacle, even behind closed doors.
UEFA is committed to finishing its two major tournaments following the conclusion of Europe’s domestic leagues. Under the plans, two-legged fixtures would be scrapped with quarter-final and semi-final ties changed to one-off encounters.
Second legs of remaining last-16 ties – including the reverse fixtures of Manchester City against Real Madrid and Bayern Munich against Chelsea – are expected to be played as such, however.
This season’s Champions League final was originally scheduled to take place at the Ataturk Stadium in Istanbul back on May 30 but the city apparently wasn’t keen on having fans present and potentially losing revenue. So UEFA came up with a contingency plan of staging the quarter-finals, semi-finals and final of Europe’s premier club competition elsewhere but in the same city.
Britain’s Daily Telegraph says Frankfurt and Moscow were among those to have registered their interest in taking over the event but Lisbon could use three stadiums. Plus, Portugal does not have any teams left the knockout stages so Lisbon would be a neutral venue while the number of coronavirus cases in the country is relatively low.
It is not yet decided apparently where the Europa League would be concluded or in what format but UEFA are expected to make a ruling on both competitions when its executive committee convenes on-line later this month.
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