UEFA, European football’s governing body, announced that this summer’s European tournament has been postponed until 2021 due to the COVID-19 virus. The new dates will be June 11 to July 11, 2021. At this time there are no changes to the teams, format or host cities.
Several of the European leagues expressed a desire for the tournament to be postponed to allow the domestic season to be completed once the COVID-19 crisis is over. The German Bundesliga league announced this week that if the season wasn’t able to be completed, some clubs might go bankrupt due to lack of ticket sales.
With the current crisis spanning all of Europe and the tournament being played for the first time throughout Europe, this allows the focus to turn to each league on allowing them to complete their seasons.
Several teams, such as Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid, and leagues such as the English and French, have backed the decision to postpone the tournament.
Currently, most leagues have suspended play. Most of the initial suspension of the leagues was for two weeks, but those certainly look to last longer as the crisis shows no signs of ending anytime soon.
This is the first time the European tournament has been postponed. Amsterdam, Baku, Bilbao, Bucharest, Budapest, Copenhagen, Dublin, Glasgow, London, Munich, Rome and St. Petersburg are the host cities.
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