KEIR RADNEDGE REPORTS: Aleksander Ceferin, the president of European federation UEFA, has restated his confidence in completing the European season in August. However he conceded uncertainty over whether all 12 of the Euro 2020 venues would be available for the postponed finals next year.
UEFA has envisaged domestic leagues wrapping up in July, leaving time for a rapid conclusion to the Champions and Europa Leagues the following month.
Ceferin told BeIN Sports: “As things look now, I’m sure that we can finish the European season [behind closed doors] and this means UEFA competitions.”
The Champions League, Europa League and Premier League were suspended on 13 March because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The Premier League has nine rounds of fixtures remaining, while Paris Saint-Germain were awarded the French title after the =government cancelled the remainder of the 2019-20 sporting season.
The German Bundesliga returned behind closed doors on 16 May and Spain’s La Liga hopes to imigtate that next month.
Ceferin said leagues which do not complete the season “will still have to play qualifiers if they want to participate in Uefa competition” next season.
He added: “Only sporting reasons can be the formula for qualifying for the Champions League and Europa League.”
Euro 2020, due to take place from 12 June to 12 July this summer, will now run from 11 June to 11 July next year after a decision to postpone in March.
Both semi-finals and the final are due to be held at London’s Wembley Stadium with 11 other host cities: Amsterdam, Baku, Bilbao, Bucharest, Budapest, Copenhagen, Dublin, Glasgow, Munich, Rome and St Petersburg.
Ceferin said the idea is to “stay in the same cities” for the tournament in 2021 and UEFA has had “conversations with nine” of those host cities.
“With three cities, we have some issues. So we will discuss further, and in principle, we will do it in 12 cities. But if not, we are ready to do it in 10, nine or eight.”
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