Football Showcase Finals Set for August

EUROPE’S governing football body UEFA is set to go for August as the new month for the showcase Champions and Europa League finals.

The ties were meant to be played in May, but European club tournaments have been thrown into disarray along with domestic competitions due to the coronavirus pandemic.

UEFA is due to meet on April 23 to talk about how they will finish their competitions, with a proposal that the Champions League final being held on Saturday August 29 at the Ataturk Stadium in Istanbul.

The Europa League final would take place in Poland at Gdansk three days earlier.

All of the timings revolve around how individual governments across Europe choose to relax lockdown laws and when countries like Spain will be able to resume La Liga action.

The Spanish league has held out some optimism that matches could be played behind closed doors from the end of May, but observers suggest that July is the earliest time frame for the remaining fixtures to start to be picked up.

There is a distinct possibility that domestic leagues and the UEFA competitions could resume at the same time and be played in tandem, as is the case under normal circumstances.

Both the Champions League and the Europa League are halfway through the round of 16 stage, and one option to make up time could be to have the quarter and semi-final matches played as a single tie, rather than two legs.

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Written by

Alex Trelinski

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