UEFA president Ceferin says leagues ready to play behind closed doors

UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin said on Monday that leagues across Europe were ready to return to action behind closed doors in a bid to limit the damage caused by coronavirus.

Football leagues have been suspended since mid-March due to the pandemic which has claimed more than 100,000 lives throughout the continent.

But the head of European football believes that playing would be an important step towards a return to normal life and avoid heavy financial losses for leagues.

“I believe there are options that can allow us to restart cup championships and to complete them,” Ceferin said in an interview with Italian daily Corriere della Sera.

“We may have to resume without spectators, but the most important thing, I think, is playing games.

“It is early to say that we cannot complete the season. The impact would be terrible for clubs and leagues. Better to play behind closed doors than not at all.  In such hard times it would bring happiness to people and a certain sense of normality even if the games can only be seen on TV.

“All activities are being organised to start again, everyone needs to find their lives.

“If safety measures are respected and if the authorities give the green light, the training could resume like the rest.

“Further consent will be needed for matches.”

Ceferin said that if leagues returned “soon enough” then Champions League and Europa League matches could “be played in parallel” with no date limit for the finals.

The Slovenian said he was not in favour of the season going into September and October as it “would have a heavy impact” on the 2020-2021 campaign.

“We can finish, but we must respect the decisions taken by authorities,” he continued.

“The priority is the health of fans, players and coaches.”

As for countries who have decided not to finish the season, Ceferin said that UEFA “will review the cases”.

“Such decisions were not made alone,” he said.

“Football is interconnected, we have seen how important it is for UEFA and leagues to work in good cooperation. The executive committee will review the cases.”

He added: “Leagues are the revenue base for clubs nationwide. If completed, the financial consequences will be limited.

“UEFA, on the other hand, will lose a lot of money for postponing Euro 2020.”

Meanwhile, UEFA will hold an Executive Committee meeting by videoconference on Thursday, European football’s governing body has confirmed, as it continues to look at ways of restarting the season in the midst of the coronavirus crisis.

Before that, the heads of each of UEFA’s 55 member associations will come together next Tuesday to look at developments across both domestic and continental competitions.

UEFA is also set to meet with the powerful European Club Association (ECA) and the European Leagues grouping on Wednesday.

The meetings could bring confirmation of the postponement of the next women’s European Championship by a year to 2022 -- following the earlier decision to postpone the men’s Euro to 2021 -- but any other firm decisions may be unlikely.

All leading leagues across Europe, as well as the UEFA Champions League and Europa League, were halted in mid-March as countries went into lockdown due to the pandemic. The only country that has kept on playing is Belarus.

UEFA has since remained optimistic about the prospect of finishing the European seasons and has been working on the possibility of playing in July and August if need be.

Agencies