The remaining rounds of the Champions League and Europa League could be played this summer if the coronavirus crisis is sufficiently contained, Uefa is expected to announce.
The governing body of European football has been meeting on Wednesday, along with representatives of 55 national footballing bodies, to formulate a plan following the total shutdown of professional sport this past month.
It is understood that among the proposals to emerge from the meeting will be a postponement of international fixtures scheduled for June and the rescheduling of the remaining rounds of European club competition to July and August.
The Champions League and Europa League were suspended in March. Four ties remain to be completed in the Champions League last 16, including Manchester City’s with Real Madrid and Chelsea’s fixture against Bayern Munich. In the Europa League, eight last-16 fixtures have been postponed.
That would leave 38 matches to be arranged for both competitions, with Uefa hoping that a change in the lockdown conditions currently extant in almost all European countries will allow for the games to be played in the summer.
Some of these matches could be played on dates originally intended for Euro 2020, which has been postponed for a year. It is also the case however that such dates are being considered by domestic leagues too.
The English Premier League is set to discuss further contingency plans to complete the domestic season during June and July, should conditions allow, at an extraordinary shareholders’ meeting on Friday. While it is just one of a number of potential solutions set to be discussed, it would require synchronising with any Uefa plans.
At this stage potential rescheduling remains only so many marks on a piece of paper. With coronavirus cases and deaths continuing to rise in Europe and across the world, no one can say with any confidence when professional sport will resume or even in what form.
