Coronavirus: UEFA Announce Postponement Of Euro 2020 Play-Offs
As was expected, UEFA have finally announced the indefinite postponement of the Euro 2020 playoffs initially slated for June.
The decision reached by the Federation comes as the latest step in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic that has brought a shutdown to most leagues across Europe.
Most leagues have been suspended following the outbreak of the virus and it is still very much unclear when these leagues would resume action.
As a result of the uncertainty about when the leagues will be back in action, UEFA announced that Euro 2020 will be pushed back by a year to allow the federation combat the scheduling issues caused by the outbreak of the virus.
The continental competition set to be played across different cities and was initially scheduled for June 12, 2020, but it soon became clear that such a competition could not go on given the circumstances.
In addition, the 2021 Nations League Finals set to be played in the same June when the Euro was shifted to jas been pushed even further to September the same year.
Originally, a nunber of play-offs that were cancelled during the March international break were scheduled to be played in June, as a group of 16 teams battled for the last four spots of the summer tournament.
However, UEFA have announced that those matches will be postponed indefinitely even as the Coronavirus pandemic doesn’t look likely to be cleared anytime soon.
The federation also confirmed that qualifying matches for Women’s Euro 2021 have been pushed back while the under-17 and under-19 Euros have been cancelled altogether.
However, the men’s under-19 Euros and women’s under-17 Euros that were set for this summer have been postponed as the two competitions serve as qualifiers for World Cup competitions.
