The Champions League and the Europa League have both been postponed due to the recent COVID-19 outbreak and right now there’s mad scramble to decide as to how these two competitions would be finished in time.
Last week, UEFA released a statement which read: “In the light of developments due to the spread of COVID-19 in Europe and related decisions made by different governments, all UEFA club competitions matches scheduled next week are postponed.
“This includes the remaining UEFA Champions League, Round of 16 second leg matches scheduled on 17 and 18 March 2020; all UEFA Europa League, Round of 16 second leg matches scheduled on 19 March 2020; all UEFA Youth League, quarter-final matches scheduled on 17 and 18 March 2020.
“Further decisions on when these matches take place will be communicated in due course.”
UEFA are set to hold a meeting on Tuesday where they are set to decide the fate of the Champions League and the Europa League and according to AS, the governing body of football in Europe have some really positive ideas.
The report states: “According to the plan being drawn up by European football’s governing body, the semi-finals and final of each tournament would be contested in a single city over a four-day period, all in single-legged format.
“Istanbul and Gdansk, which have already been chosen as the final venues of the Champions League and Europa League, respectively, would be the host cities for the two events.
“UEFA’s director of competitions, Giorgio Marchetti, is set to present the proposal to representatives of the organisation’s 55 member associations when they hold a video conference on Tuesday, before putting it to a vote.”
While this solution is a really feasible one but right now UEFA’s biggest challenge is to finish the remaining Round of 16 games along with the quarter-finals.
And if the Champions League and the Europa League can be wrapped up by playing a ‘final-four’ format then surely the domestic leagues will benefit hugely from meaning they could then be able to finish their remaining games.
