LISBON: UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin has reiterated that the European federation will not be repeating the Final Eight format forced upon it to resolve the Champions and Europa Leagues.

The drama and quality of the initial ties in both competitions has raised speculation about the value of the event, particularly at a time when international federation FIFA is trying to put together its own end-of-season world club tournament.

However Ceferin said: “This tournament format may be interesting but I don’t think we can do that in the future. There’s no room for that in the calendar. I don’t know where we could host a tournament like this over a week or two in May in the future.”

Earlier this week the format was praised by Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, ceo of German champions Bayern Munich.

However Ceferin said: “I’m naturally optimistic about the future [beyond the pandemic]. I believe that things will go better from next year and that we will have normal football back – good old football with spectators.”

Ceferin also hoped that it would be possible to play the postponed Euro 2020 finals next year with fans in the stadia.

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