UEFA today announced the postponement of its flagship national team competition, UEFA EURO 2020, due to be played in June and July this year. The health of all those involved in the game is the priority, as well as to avoid placing any unnecessary pressure on national public services involved in staging matches. The move will help all domestic competitions, currently on hold due to the COVID-19 emergency, to be completed.
That’s the opening remarks on the official UEFA website today as football tries to pick up the pieces after the coronavirus put the brakes on this season and brought games being played to a shuddering halt.
“All UEFA competitions and matches (including friendlies) for clubs and national teams for both men and women have been put on hold until further notice. The UEFA EURO 2020 Play-off matches and international friendlies, scheduled for the end of March, will now be played in the international window at the start of June, subject to a review of the situation.”
So that means that the sold-out Euro Qualifier semi-final against Israel is now pushed back from the end of this month until June, if and it has to be said that is a very big if indeed, the coronavirus has receded since then. Watching the rolling news feed today the health experts are predicting a peak in the UK of late June to early July.
That is going to make UEFA’s plan very hard to come together in June.
“A working group has been set up with the participation of leagues and club representatives to examine calendar solutions that would allow for the completion of the current season and any other consequence of the decisions made today.”
All the leagues have different situations, leagues like the Premier League in England and the Premiership in Scotland have run-away leaders and are close to completion but that is not necessarily a position in other countries on mainland Europe where there are close, contested title races.
And it has to be remembered that it’s not only on who becomes champions and in what circumstances, it is also about relegation battles and it seems to be wholly unsuitable and unfair to relegate teams like Hearts who have a chance to win matches and get themselves out of trouble should the games be played.
In the event of the Scottish Premiership not being able to be completed by UEFA’s apparent end of June deadline, then the fair and responsible thing to do is end the league with the places as they are – so Celtic are Champions and deservedly so – but scrap relegation and instead increase the league to 14 teams next season with three being relegated at the end of that campaign.
Why is that not just accepted as the fairest and most reasonable solution to an unprecedented situation that was out with football’s control. Indeed the club that loses the most out of this is Celtic who will be denied a title party and a massive celebration on trophy day.
The UEFA statement continued: The decisions, taken by UEFA’s Executive Committee, followed videoconference meetings held today with the Presidents and General Secretaries of the 55 national associations, as well as representatives of the European Club Association, European Leagues and FIFPro Europe, convened by UEFA President Aleksander Čeferin, to find a coherent plan to break the logjam of fixtures building up due to the spread of the virus across the continent.
Announcing the decisions, Aleksander Čeferin said:
“We are at the helm of a sport that vast numbers of people live and breathe that has been laid low by this invisible and fast-moving opponent. It is at times like these, that the football community needs to show responsibility, unity, solidarity and altruism.
“The health of fans, staff and players has to be our number one priority and in that spirit, UEFA tabled a range of options so that competitions can finish this season safely and I am proud of the response of my colleagues across European football. There was a real spirit of co-operation, with everyone recognising that they had to sacrifice something in order to achieve the best result.
“It was important that, as the governing body of European football, UEFA led the process and made the biggest sacrifice. Moving EURO 2020 comes at a huge cost for UEFA but we will do our best to ensure that the vital funding for grassroots, women’s football and the development of the game in our 55 countries is not affected. Purpose over profit has been our guiding principle in taking this decision for the good of European football as a whole.
“Football is an uplifting and powerful force in society. The thought of celebrating a pan-European festival of football in empty stadia, with deserted fan zones while the continent sits at home in isolation, is a joyless one and one we could not accept to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the competition.
“I would like to thank the European Club Association, the European Leagues and FIFPro Europe for their great work today and for their cooperation. I would also like to thank from the bottom of my heart the 55 national associations, their Presidents and General Secretaries, and my colleagues from the Executive Committee for their support and wise decisions. The fine detail will be worked out in the coming weeks but the basic principles have been agreed and that is a major step forward. We have all shown that we are responsible leaders. We have demonstrated solidarity and unity. Purpose over profit. We’ve achieved this today.
“I would also like to thank Alejandro Dominguez and CONMEBOL, who have agreed to move CONMEBOL’s 2020 Copa America in order to follow the recommendations issued by the international public health organisations to enact extreme measures and as a result of EURO 2020 being postponed. This means that clubs and leagues in Europe will have as little disruption as possible in the availability of their players. These joint efforts and especially this coordinated and responsible decision, are deeply appreciated by the whole European football community.
“I would like to thank FIFA and its President, Gianni Infantino, who has indicated it will do whatever is required to make this new calendar work. In the face of this crisis, football has shown its best side with openness, solidarity and tolerance.”
And the statement concluded as follows: UEFA EURO 2020 was scheduled to take place in twelve cities across Europe from 12 June to 12 July 2020. The proposed new dates are 11 June – 11 July 2021. UEFA would like to reassure existing ticket buyers and hospitality clients that if they cannot attend the tournament in 2021, the face value of their tickets and packages will be refunded in full. Within the next month, further information on the refund process will be communicated to existing ticket buyers via e-mail and on euro2020.com/tickets.
Decisions on dates for other UEFA competitions, whether club or national team for men or women, will be taken and announced in due course.
In summary as far as the Scottish Premiership goes, the games are now going to be planned to be played in June, but with one date already taken for the Scotland v Israel match. That means Celtic have to play 8 league games in June, the Rangers (and St Johnstone 9 games) and there is also the Scottish Cup to include in the schedule, although that may move to August.
Even if the Scottish Cup is pushed back then with that many of league games still to be played, Celtic will be playing every midweek and three Saturday in June plus on Tuesday 30 June to get the league concluded.
Coronavirus permitting. Let’s hope that it is possible and the games can be played. That will mean that the health crisis has eased sufficiently to allow this all to happen. So it makes sense to put the plans in place but a decision will have to be made either on the field or though the SFA and SPFL having to end the season so that by 30 June 2020 we have our Scottish Champions.
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