September 17 – UEFA has pushed back women’s, futsal and youth competitions to November amid a calendar re-organisation that will also see a number of championship format changes.
Responding to concerns over the spread of coronavirus and increases in new cases across Europe, UEFA’s Executive Committee too the decision “in order to further mitigate risks by granting UEFA, clubs and national associations more time to adapt to the evolving situation and thoroughly prepare matches, travels as well as the implementation of the UEFA Return to Play Protocol.”
The decisions taken by the UEFA Executive Committee are:
2019/20 UEFA Under-19 Championship
The Elite round is postponed to November 2020 (from October 2020) and the Final Eight tournament will be played in Northern Ireland in March 2021.
The Final Eight tournament will now consist of a straight knock-out phase with quarter-finals, semi-finals and the final (and play-off matches to qualify a fifth UEFA team to the FIFA U20 World Cup 2021).
2020/21 UEFA Womens’ Champions League
The Preliminary Round mini-tournaments will be replaced by two single-leg knock-out rounds with 40 teams in the First Qualifying Round on 3/4 November and 20 teams in the Second Qualifying Round on 18/19 November.
The Round of 32 is postponed to 8/9 and 15/16 December.
The remainder of the competition will be played as originally scheduled:
- Round of 16 and quarter-finals in March 2021
- Semi-finals in April 2021
- Final in May 2021
2020/21 UEFA Futsal Champions League
The Preliminary Round, Main Round and Elite Round (all originally planned with mini-tournaments) will be replaced by single-leg knock-out rounds, with the Preliminary Round in November, the Round of 32 in January and the Round of 16 in February.
The Final Eight (instead of Final Four) will take place in April or May.
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