UEFA Proposing Champions League and Europa League Finals To Be Played At End Of August
UEFA is considering plans to play the 2020 Champions League final on August 29. The coronavirus pandemic has put football and the entire sporting world on hold, leaving competitions such as the Champions League and Europa League in a state of limbo.
European football’s governing body, UEFA, is due to meet on April 23 for further discussions on how to complete the 2019/20 campaign.
Its plans for the two European competitions will ultimately depend on how soon domestic leagues across the continent can resume.
The Premier League is still hopeful of resuming their campaign, with a meeting today to discuss their next move, and the latest reports suggest that clubs want the season finished by June 30.
If the domestic leagues are up and running sometime in the next couple of months, then UEFA could decide to play them alongside the league action as they do in normal circumstances.
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But if it is not until July or August that the action is underway then UEFA would be more likely to play the remainder of the two competitions in a condensed timeframe, culminating at the end of August.
The Champions League final is due to take place in May at Istanbul’s Ataturk Stadium but, under the new proposals, that would happen on the final Saturday of August (29).
Meanwhile, the Europa League final in Gdansk – scheduled for May 30 – would be moved to August 26. It is still up in the air how the competitions will be concluded. Both the Champions League and the Europa League are currently midway through the round of 16 stages.
There have been discussions about provisionally playing the Champions League quarter-finals from July 28/29 and the latter stages of the competition would thus be played in August.
However, there is also talk of playing the remaining ties as one-off matches after the end of the domestic seasons, which could see it potentially condensing into a mini-tournament.
Four of the eight Champions League quarter-finalists are already known, however, last-16 ties including Real Madrid vs Manchester City and Chelsea vs Bayern Munich are yet to be concluded.
The situation is more complex in the Europa League because all eight last-16 second-leg ties are still to be played, with two matches, involving Spanish and Italian teams, yet to play the first legs.
