“The general feeling is that it is inevitable to postpone the Euro Cup”

The World Health Organization (WHO) cannot guarantee UEFA that the coronavirus will be fully controlled by June 12, the date scheduled for the start of the European Championship in Rome.. This opinion will be decisive in the decision to postpone the tournament, which will be taken on Tuesday after the conclave of the 55 European federations. The organization has also received no good news from the twelve host cities, whose respective countries are also affected by the pandemic. “The general feeling is that it will be inevitable to postpone the tournament,” a source from the UEFA Executive confirmed to this newspaper.

Moving the European team tournament to the summer of 2021 is the most likely solution. The same will happen with the Copa América, scheduled for this summer in Colombia and Argentina. With this change in the international calendar, the Club World Cup would be affected, which would also be delayed for a year, until the summer of 2022, taking advantage of the fact that the Qatar World Cup will be held in winter. Another option, very remote, to save the tournament would be to transfer it to a single venue. The organization has moved in this direction, but it is considered inadvisable. “There is a country in which the pandemic has so far had little impact on hosting the Euro Cup. But, in addition to the infrastructure problems that this would entail, there is the risk of spreading the contagion. It is unlikely,” added the same sources.

Until the last moment, UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin has resisted accepting reality. Last week, at the Congress your organization held in Amsterdam, you still refused to consider the possibility of postponing the Euro Cup. But in recent days the alarm signals issued by different European governments and, above all, the WHO resolution have made him change his mind. “UEFA has not ceased to be in contact with the WHO and with all the European federations, which have conveyed the feelings of their respective governments. The sum of both factors indicates that it will be impossible to carry out the tournament as scheduled and planned” .

That the World Health Organization cannot assure that the coronavirus will be defeated by mid-June has been definitive. The fact, furthermore, that the tournament has been set up to take place in twelve European cities with the consequent transit of millions of people throughout the continent is not the most appropriate way to stop the pandemic. UEFA will postpone the tournament due to “force majeure”, given the unforeseen and unimpeachable nature of the disease.