Football looks to Uefa for answers as coronavirus crisis escalates

The danger of becoming hostages to fortune is almost impossible to avoid for those charged with trying to steer professional football through the 
still unquantifiable impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
Uefa president Aleksander Ceferin will today chair an emergency videoconference summit. Picture: Fabrice Coffrini/AFPUefa president Aleksander Ceferin will today chair an emergency videoconference summit. Picture: Fabrice Coffrini/AFP
Uefa president Aleksander Ceferin will today chair an emergency videoconference summit. Picture: Fabrice Coffrini/AFP

Speaking only two weeks ago at his organisation’s annual congress in Amsterdam, Uefa president Aleksander Ceferin sought to strike an upbeat note amid the gathering storm. “Let’s try to be optimistic and not think about dark scenarios,” was Ceferin’s message. “There’s time for that later”.

But the breathlessly fast-changing pace of events across the continent since he uttered those words mean that time is now for Ceferin.

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Today, the Slovenian lawyer will chair the emergency videoconference summit called by Uefa to address how its 55 members should deal with the effect of COVID-19 on season 2019-20.

Each of those 55 countries has its own local difficulties to face. Many of them, including Scotland, are waiting for guidance from Uefa over whether this campaign’s domestic leagues will be played to a finish whenever football is safely able to resume, if title winners and other issues will be determined by current positions in the tables, or if the season is simply declared null and void.

The European Leagues, the umbrella organisation whose 36 members include the Scottish Professional Football League, will be represented at the Uefa conference and has stressed the need for a unified approach to the unprecedented circumstances.

“Cooperation, coordination and flexibility are going to be essential,” it said in a statement. “For the European Leagues it is most essential that domestic competitions can be completed this season, to limit the negative impact for the entire football 
ecosystem.

“This crisis is also causing very serious sporting and financial consequences to all parties involved in the game. We are ready to cooperate with Uefa and other stakeholders to find common solutions to all these issues in a constructive way, including the international club competitions and Euro 2020.”

For Ceferin, the status of Euro 2020 will be top of the agenda. Of all the years for European football’s flagship international tournament to adopt the format of 12 host nations, including Scotland, it just had to be this 
one as a global health crisis threatens to shut down travel across the 
continent.

There is certainly no longer any prospect of it going ahead this June and July as scheduled. A postponement to either December or summer 2021 has been mooted, while it is not out of the question it could be scrapped altogether.

That is only one of the painful scenarios facing the Scottish FA who had managed to sell out Hampden for the play-off semi-final against Israel on 26 March which Uefa is expected to formally call off today.

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Uefa also has to deal with the remainder of both the Champions League and Europa League which are both still at the last-16 stage.

One solution which will be on the table today is to truncate and distil both tournaments, while still concluding them in the original host cities due to stage the respective finals.

Whenever football can resume, the remaining last-16 ties will be played to a finish as normal – including Rangers’ Europa League meeting with Bayer Leverkusen in which the Ibrox side suffered a 3-1 defeat in the first leg at home last Thursday.

The quarter-finals would be played as one-off matches, either with the team drawn out of the hat first playing at home, if possible, or at a neutral venue.

The four Champions League and Europa League semi-finalists would then travel to Istanbul and Gdansk respectively, the tournaments decided by one-off semi-finals and the final over four days.

But while there are no shortage of innovative and pragmatic ideas such as those for the Uefa delegates to discuss, the biggest problem remains the complete uncertainty over when the worst of the coronavirus pandemic will be over and it will be safe for both players and supporters to return to stadiums.

The increasingly influential European Club Association, whose membership includes Aberdeen, Celtic, Hearts, Motherwell and Rangers, will also be involved in the Uefa summit and is seeking strong and clear outcomes.

“The COVID-19 crisis is destabilising our countries, our people and our sports,” said the ECA in a statement.

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“We know it will take some time to get things under control and we know that taking responsibility along with decisive action is needed now, more than ever. For the good of our society and for the good of the game, our number one priority is to prevent the spread of the virus. ECA is working on your behalf to ensure the right decisions are made in the short term to achieve this.

“We are engaging constantly with governing bodies and stakeholders 
to make collective decisions. We know the first step is to stop the virus from spreading, whatever it takes. Then we can focus on the longer-term consequences.

“The time has come for the football community to unite and use the strength of football as one of 
the most powerful social tools to 
support efforts to overcome this 
crisis. We will focus all our efforts in this endeavour.”

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