Scotland v Israel Euro 2021 play-off postponed indefinitely as Uefa give more time to complete current season

Scotland's Euro 2020 play-off postponed. Picture: Getty

Scotland’s Euro 2021 play-off with Israel which was set to be played in June has been postponed indefinitely as they seek to give more time to conclude the current season.

Uefa met with 55 member associations on a video conference today to discuss how to best proceed with the postponed campaign, player contracts as well as the organisation’s national and club competitions.

They met last month where it was decided to postpone this year’s European Championships until next summer.

No decisions were made on when leagues were required to finish by. Uefa have, however, decided to postponed deadlines for next season’s European competitions until further notice.

It is a move to allow “member associations more time to complete the club licensing process”, i.e. conclude the current campaign.

The full statement read: “Following today’s videoconference meeting with the general secretaries of all 55 UEFA member associations and recommendations made by the working groups created on 17 March, the UEFA Executive Committee took a series of decisions, as follows:

“On competition matters:

• All national team matches for men and women due to be played in June 2020 are postponed until further notice. This includes the play-off matches for UEFA EURO 2020 and qualifying matches for UEFA Women’s EURO 2021.

• All other UEFA competition matches, including the centralised international friendly matches, remain postponed until further notice.

• Youth national team competitions:

(i) the UEFA European Under-17 Championship final tournament scheduled for May 2020 is cancelled;

(ii) the UEFA European Women’s Under-19 Championship final tournament scheduled for July 2020 is cancelled;

(iii) the UEFA European Women’s Under-17 Championship final tournament scheduled for May 2020 is postponed until further notice (as it is a qualifying competition for the FIFA U 17 Women's World Cup);

(iv) the UEFA European Under-19 Championship final tournament scheduled for July 2020 is postponed until further notice (as it is a qualifying competition for the FIFA U-20 World Cup).

• The UEFA Futsal Champions League finals scheduled for April 2020 are postponed until further notice.

• The deadlines related to all 2020/21 UEFA club competitions are postponed until further notice, in particular as regards the admission process and the registration of players. UEFA will set new deadlines in due course.

“On club licensing and financial fair play matters:

“The Executive Committee reiterated its full commitment to club licensing and financial fair play and agreed that the current exceptional circumstances necessitate some specific interventions to facilitate the work of member associations and clubs.

“It supports the proposal to give member associations more time to complete the club licensing process, until the admission process for next season’s UEFA club competitions has been redefined.

“As a result of the increasing uncertainty generated by the ongoing extraordinary events, the Executive Committee also decided to suspend the club licensing provisions that relate to the preparation and assessment of clubs’ future financial information. This decision applies exclusively for participation in the 2020/21 UEFA club competitions.”

This afternoon, Scotland’s PFA chairman Liam Craig said players will not play behind closed doors until Government guidelines change.

He said: “We made that decision as players and a union right at the start of this and I think a lot throughout this period we have been ahead of the game in terms of trying to get on the front foot and see what’s happening, moving forward and looking at other countries and how it has affected them.

“From a player’s point of view, first and foremost, like anything safety for the players is paramount. There’s no guarantee playing behind closed doors you’re going to get that safety.

“Right now, with the Government guidelines, with social distancing, the SFA guidelines that we’re not even allowed to train together, I think for the time being it’s not even a conversation to have.

“In a few weeks’ time if the circumstances become a lot clearer and the medical advice is a lot better than it is maybe something we talk about further down the line but right now I can’t see it happening.”