Coronavirus can wreak havoc on the calendar of all sports competitions. LaLiga, as Serie A already did, has made the decision to stop the championship. The great inconvenience that exists is the dates available in the calendar to recover these postponed days.
Options to recover two days postponed and keep the Euro Cup
The calendar is highly saturated by domestic competitions, UEFA competitions and national team appointments (from March 23 to April 2 there will be friendlies). For the First Division teams there would be barely two weeks before the end of May to recover a postponed day. Initially, if only two days were postponed, the calendar would allow them to be recovered. It is released the weekend of April 18 and 19, after the Federation agreed yesterday with Real Sociedad and Athletic to postpone the final of the Copa del Rey. The next available days are Tuesday, May 19, Wednesday, May 20, and Thursday, May 21.
The problem of postponed parties in Europe
The downside is in the Champions League and Europe Leauge competitions. Inter-Getafe and Sevilla-Roma have been postponed. What determines the eighths of the second European competition. There would be no free date on the calendar of these teams until April 18 and 19. Date to which the domestic competitions would resort. Which would imply a conflict of interest between the leagues and UEFA. One of the possibilities, which Clemente Villaverde (Getafe's general director) opened, is that the games postponed to a single match would be played on a neutral field. An option that would be on the table and being studied.
The European Championship is in danger
The big problem that exists to recover the league matches that are not played due to the closure of football in the face of this pandemic is the celebration of the European Championship, whose start is set for June 12 and will last a month. In LaLiga there could be a problem of dates if more than two days are suspended. Thing that if it happens in the rest of the European leagues could force, along with the premise of prevention against the virus, of not holding this season the Eurocup as planned.
In UEFA, there is already talk of delaying it for a year and having it played in 2021. This would lead to a new problem: it would coincide with the League of Nations, which is scheduled for the final phase to be played in June 2021. There is also scheduled for next summer to open the new format of the Club World Cup in China (from June 17 to July 4). This tournament could not be delayed until July due to the fact that the holidays of the players would not be respected. If this measure is taken, the European leagues and competitions could recover the days postponed during the month of June.