Coronavirus: UEFA-FIFA mess

Coupling the European calendar once the coronavirus crisis ends will not be an easy task. It remains to be seen how many League matches and how many Champions League and Europa League play-offs are upset. Also, how does all this affect the Eurocup and, in case of postponement, when could it be placed on a tremendously loaded calendar. The same goes for the Copa América, scheduled for the same exact dates as the Euro.

An emergency solution that could be used by UEFA for the Champions League and the Europa League is the single-match playoff dispute. Once the round of 16 closed, which remains to be seen when it would be possible, the option of playing the quarters, the semifinals and the final in a single match would be opened. Thus, it would take three dates only to close the tournament, plus the eighth matches pending. It could even reach the scheduled day of the Champions League final on May 30 in Istanbul. Of course, it would lead to the debate that playing a single match would be, in principle, a great advantage for the local team resulting from the draw. The same would happen with the Europa League, which would follow a parallel path.

If the idea of ​​round-robin playoffs in the quarterfinals and semifinals were to continue, the competition would probably hit June and with it the scheduled dates for the European Championship. The UEFA national team tournament, which this year will be held in 12 countries on the occasion of its anniversary, may be the biggest loser on the annual calendar. If the Champions League, the Europa League and the local Leagues and Cups push the Euro Cup towards the summer, an option that immediately arises is to postpone the tournament for one year and play it in 2021. The same would happen with the Copa América, since almost all its stars they militate in Europe.

But there are major problems for the postponement of a year. The main one is the creation of the new FIFA Club World Cup, announced a few months ago with great fanfare, and whose dispute is scheduled for June and July 2021. It will be the first World Cup with 24 teams, it will be held in China and presumably the great teams of the world and therefore of Europe (Madrid, Barça, Juventus, PSG, Bayern, those of the Premier) will participate in it … Here A conflict arises between UEFA and FIFA that is already old. The two fight to capture the maximum attention of the public and would compete for dates that FIFA has already endorsed and that it should “give” to UEFA to organize its Eurocup. European stars will not be able to play both tournaments in any case. Or one or the other.

Another issue that disturbs UEFA is that the Women's European Championship is scheduled for 2021, to be held in July. The highest body under no circumstances would want to obscure with the men's championship its increasingly important female version, a whole bet that is in line with the growth of women in football and in society. He would not have so many problems with the final phase of the League of Nations, which is also scheduled for June 2021 but that with less interest could move without much problem. A gibberish of which there will be more tracks next Tuesday, after the UEFA meeting to unblock this matter.