Uefa bid to finish season by June ‘unrealistic’ says SFA’s Maxwell

A plan by European football chiefs to complete domestic seasons by the end of June following the coronavirus outbreak has been described as unrealistic by SFA chief executive Ian Maxwell.

A woman wearing a medical mask walks past a sign with Euro 2020 emblem in St.Petersburg, one of the host cities. Picture: Dmitri Lovetsky/AP

Maxwell participated in a Uefa conference call involving all 55 national associations yesterday as Euro 2020 was postponed for 12 months in a bid to create circumstances where countries can ensure the 2019/20 season is played to a finish.

Another move designed to accommodate the finale of the domestic season is confirmation that the Euro 2020 play-offs have been pushed back to an existing international window in June “subject to a review of the situation”.

Scotland were due to host Israel next Thursday night in a a semi-final play-off at Hampden Park.

While reassuring supporters that all tickets will be valid for the rescheduled fixtures in early June, Maxwell admitted he “didn’t see how it was 
possible” to stage the fixture so soon.

Maxwell was also sceptical about the prospect of any football, international or otherwise, being played in Scotland before at least August.

As many as 78 football officials from leagues and national associations all across Europe were involved in a video conference call, including Maxwell and SFA president Rod Petrie.

Uefa president Aleksander
Ceferin later hailed the “openness, solidarity and tolerance” on display across football in this combined bid to draw up a new football calendar.

But mere cooperation is not enough in the face of a developing global pandemic.

Maxwell said: “I think we need to be realistic about it, the advice we are getting from the medical experts is that we have not yet hit the peak of this virus and that could take another four, five, six weeks.

“There is then another eight weeks to get out the other side of that which takes us late into the summer.

“When you take it from a player’s perspective, they are obviously not training at moment – they will be off longer than the close season very shortly. When they come back clubs will want four, five weeks’ preparation.

Speaking on Radio Scotland’s Sportsound programme, Maxwell added: “We need to be realistic about it.”

Asked specifically if he thought Scotland’s play-off against Israel will go ahead in its new slot, he replied: “I think it is unrealistic. Even If you do the simple maths… getting clubs to want to release their top players, their assets, to the national team having not played a game is not going to happen realistically.

“They will need to have played a bit of football by that point, which means you are working back the way in terms of weeks to get them prepared.

“So for us to play in the international window, which I think is in fact late May and early June, you’d be looking at football beginning again in May. And given we are now in the middle of March, I don’t see how that’s possible.”

What is now known as Euro 2021 will take place between 11 June and 11 July next year. The UEFA women’s Euros, which were due to take place the same summer, will be rescheduled, as will the Nations League finals and Under 21 Euros.

A working group has been set up by Uefa to “examine calendar solutions” that would allow the completion of the current season in leagues around Europe, including Scotland. The aim is to try and finish domestic seasons by 30 June although this in itself creates problems, not the least of which is the issue of many players’ contracts ending earlier the same month.

Maxwell revealed the SFA is committed to ensuring the three remaining Scottish Cup games – two semi-finals and final – will be played “at an appropriate time in front of spectators”.

There is the potential for some squads to look significantly different when the competition resumes, possibly later this year, but Maxwell argued that the priority is to get the ties played.

“If things are slightly different then things are slightly different, we have to deal with it at the time – we just want to get the games played,” he stressed.

Officials at some Scottish clubs are unconvinced by Uefa’s projected timeline, while growing increasingly frustrated at the lack of guidance from Scottish football’s own governing bodies.

Maxwell confirmed he was speaking to colleagues in the Joint Response Group, including SPFL chief executive Neil Doncaster, pictured, on a 
daily basis.

But clubs are receiving little advice from either the SFA or the SPFL about what to do next.

Uefa’s statement offered little in the way of respite for those clubs requiring more realistic solutions to the problem of paying players during this shutdown.

“It is a diktat coming out from an ivory tower with no relevance to the reality we are all facing just now,” said one chief executive from a Championship club in response to the Uefa statement.

“They say they will endeavour – coronavirus permitting – to finish all competition by the 30th June.

“We are all shut down now, going by government recommendations, for ten to twelve weeks.

“Even if you said ten weeks, we require two weeks at least for a pre-season. Remember, no one is training just now. If we were being generous and said we will be able to start training again in the middle of May and the season starts on the 1 June, are we going to play 14 matches, including play offs, in that time?”

Stenhousemuir chairman Iain McMenemy is equally sceptical about the chances of anything being completed by the end of June.

“In all honesty, I can’t see how we have any opportunity to play out all the outstanding games before then,” he said. “We are just pushing the problem on a little bit further.”