UEFA decides today that the Euro Cup will be suspended

The UEFA on Tuesday it has summoned its 55 European federations to reorganize European football due to the coronavirus pandemic. Decisions of transcendence will be made. In the conclave, UEFA will have to make three fundamental resolutions: postponing the European Championship until 2021, choosing the format for concluding European competitions and unifying criteria for naming champions, promotions and relegations. throughout the continent to guarantee “justice and equal merits” in access to the next edition of the Champions and of the Europa League.

The organization that Ceferin chairs already has a position taken regarding the champions of League. She is in favor of granting the title to the leader of each championship at the time when it had to be permanently suspended, something that they do not think will happen because the more than likely postponement of the Euro Cup would leave dates free to close the calendar, but always depending that the pandemic can be controlled in time. UEFA would close the following editions of the Champions League and the Europa League taking into account the classification when the leagues were suspended. It would not enter the category drops, something that would leave the federations they could choose the format to solve them. But I would advise the same formula as for naming champion.

In the organization, regarding UEFA and Europe, there is only one precedent. We have to go back to 1999, when UEFA, then under the Swedish presidency Lennart Johansson, decided to give the title to Belgrade Partisan, who was the leader of the tournament when he had to be suspended ten days from the end due to the flare-up of the Balkan War.

Although the regulations in Spain pick up that “The final classification of the competition will have to be decided by mutual agreement between LaLiga and the Federation”, in case of disagreement “it will be the president of the Federation, or the body in which he delegates, who will make the final decision”. The same article is identical in almost all the federations in Europe, and many of them prefer that it is UEFA that sets the formula to avoid conflicts with their own teams. Luis Rubiales He is a manager with decision-making capacity in the matter, since his condition as president of the RFEF joins that of vice-president of UEFA.

UEFA competition chief Italian Giorgio Marchetti, He has prepared a series of proposals to put to the vote in today's conclave. The Euro Cup would go on to be played in 2021 with the same 20 countries that have already achieved their classification, and to which will be added the four that still have to play the play-offs, heats that were due to be held at the end of the month and which are also postponed. The group draw does not vary, so Spain would play against Sweden, Poland and the winner of the tie to be disputed by Bosnia, Ireland, Slovakia and Northern Ireland. In this scenario, the postponement of Euro 2020 would be definitive, regardless of the development that the coronavirus may have in Europe in the coming months.

As for European competitions, the project goes through the Final Four formula provided that the pandemic does not force the total suspension of the Champions League and the Europa League. The World Health Organization (WHO) it cannot guarantee UEFA a date not even approximate for full control of the virus, and as long as this does not happen there is nothing guaranteed.