Football
Mark Ogden, Senior Writer, ESPN FC 4y

Coronavirus: Champions League fate up for discussion on Wednesday

UEFA will discuss the fate of this season's Champions League in a video conference meeting on Wednesday following an admission by Aleksander Ceferin, the president of European football's governing body, that this season could be "lost" if competitive action does not resume by the end of June.

Having agreed to postpone Euro 2020 for 12 months during a similar video conference on March 17, UEFA formed a working group involving representatives from national associations and clubs in an effort to find a way to reschedule this season's Champions League and Europa League competitions amid the coronavirus crisis that has led to every nation in Europe, with the exception of Belarus, closing down their football leagues.

Two weeks on from that initial meeting, there remains no date on the calendar for football to return and UEFA has since postponed the Champions League and Europa League finals which had been set for late-May in Istanbul and Gdansk respectively.

Playing games behind closed doors is one of the options that will be discussed by UEFA when the senior figures from all 55 of the organisation's member nations meet via video on Wednesday.

"UEFA has invited the general secretaries of its 55 members associations to a video conference on Wednesday 1 April at midday to share an update on the progress made by the two working groups that were created two weeks ago and to discuss options identified with regards to the potential rescheduling of matches," a UEFA statement said.

"The meeting will look at developments across all UEFA national team and club competitions, as well as discussing progress at FIFA and European level on matters such as player contracts and the transfer system."

Both the Champions League and Europa League are suspended at the round of 16 stage.

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