EURO 2020 has been postponed until the Summer of 2021, European governing body UEFA announced on Tuesday.
“The health of all those involved in the game is the priority, as well as to avoid placing any unnecessary pressure on national public services involved in staging matches,” a UEFA statement said.
“The move will help all domestic competitions, currently on hold due to the Covid-19 emergency, to be completed.”
While the EURO 2020 decision is the correct one, their hope that domestic competitions will be completed is slim. Reportedly, the European leagues have committed to finish their seasons by June 30th. However, nobody knows how the unprecedented coronavirus situation will play out.
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The desire to wrap up domestic seasons is due to the fact that June 30th is the date when players’ contracts expire. Should player’s deals run out with football still to play, it could wreak havoc with individual careers and collective squads. As well as that, this event would put the transfer market into disarray.
There is an understandable desire to finish the domestic seasons with as little controversy and legal challenges as possible. However, it will take a lot of luck for everything to go back to normal in just three months.
UEFA President Aleksander ?eferin said that football must take responsibility in these uncertain times.
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“It was important that, as the governing body of European football, UEFA led the process and made the biggest sacrifice. Moving Euro 2020 comes at a huge cost for UEFA but we will do our best to ensure that the vital funding for grassroots, women’s football and the development of the game in our 55 countries is not affected.
“Purpose over profit has been our guiding principle in taking this decision for the good of European football as a whole.”
