The Euro 2020 finals is scheduled to take place this summer, in venues stretching across eight nations - from Ireland to Azerbaijan. Reuters
The Euro 2020 finals is scheduled to take place this summer, in venues stretching across eight nations - from Ireland to Azerbaijan. Reuters
The Euro 2020 finals is scheduled to take place this summer, in venues stretching across eight nations - from Ireland to Azerbaijan. Reuters
The Euro 2020 finals is scheduled to take place this summer, in venues stretching across eight nations - from Ireland to Azerbaijan. Reuters

Fifa and Uefa on collision course as football attempts to rearrange schedule ravaged by the coronavirus


Ian Hawkey
  • English
  • Arabic

Representatives of the wealthiest and most powerful stakeholders in the world’s most popular sport meet on Tuesday via video conference to formulate a salvage plan for this football season and beyond.

In the chair will be Uefa, those lobbying will be the stakeholders of the European game, but the agenda concerns every country, league, player and supporter across the globe.

With the majority of professional competitions suspended because of the Covid-19 crisis, Uefa want to take the lead in adjusting a calendar that was already congested.

They have anticipated a broad consensus from their member nations about one course of action: That the European Championship, scheduled to begin on June 12, should be postponed to allow the current club seasons six or seven further weeks to complete fixtures.

Italy, the country in Europe most affected at this stage by the coronavirus outbreak, has already tabled the proposal. “The first priority is public health,” said Gabriele Gravina, head of Italy’s Football Federation.

He also acknowledged that the date at which many competitions, including Italy’s Serie A, and the English Premier League, have set for domestic competition to resume, April 3, may be optimistic.

“We propose Uefa postpone the European championship with the idea of June 30th as the end of the club season. In time we’ll see if that needs to be extended.”

Gravina has consulted with his counterparts across Europe, and found most open to giving immediate priority to ongoing club competitions, including the Champions League and Europa League, Uefa’s leading club tournaments. “It is fairer to give something for the clubs, who have invested and sacrificed so much, to aim for.”

Uefa are listening, and know that were club seasons to be abandoned for the sake of staging an international tournament, there would be confusion and potential resentment from participants and supporters.

Because of the unusual hosting arrangements for Euro 2020, a tournament whose venues are spread across eight nations, from Ireland to Azerbaijan, rather than staged in one country, the immediate losses of postponing would be shared, no single nation burdened with the crippling aftermath.

But no solution is simple, and shunting the calendar affects the game worldwide. Should club competitions be rescheduled into June and even July, other events would have to make accommodations.

_____________

Arteta, Gobert and other sports stars to have tested positive for coronavirus

The Copa America, in Argentina and Colombia, is also due to kick off on June 12. No one imagines that if Lionel Messi, Argentina’s captain is contesting a La Liga title with Barcelona in mid-June or Brazil’s Neymar pushing Paris Saint-Germain towards a midsummer Champions League final, the Copa could take place.

Nor is it as if four years of great expectation precede this Copa America. The 2020 edition was to be the fourth Copa within six years.

It is supposed to be a quadrennial event; by various devices, the South American confederation, Conmebol, have managed to turn it into a modern of symbol of football’s insatiable, acquisitive desire to cram as much as it can into the calendar. This is not a sport well set up to act flexibly in a global crisis.

Nor does it easily speak with one voice. One mooted plan is to move the European Championship to the summer of 2021.

Another is to relocate it to November 2020, with the obvious implication that the next club season, 2020-21, would have to rejig its timetable to accommodate the Euros. The template for that exists.

The 2022 World Cup, scheduled for Qatar, will be a November-December tournament, because of the cooler weather in those months. The schedule for club football in 2021-22 has been redesigned around it.

But both alternatives are problematic. Club football will instinctively resist the idea of three successive seasons – the current one and the next two – being pulled out of shape and, were the European Championships to be simply delayed by 12 months, another major clash would be created.

Next summer, 2021, was to feature the first edition of the expanded Fifa Club World Cup, in China, a project with the backing of the world governing body and, although it has not won unanimous support from the European superclubs, growing momentum.

It envisages a three-week tournament, with 24 clubs, including eight from Europe, six from South America, three from Africa and the two finalists from the Asian Champions League.

To move a delayed European Championship into that slot would put Uefa and Fifa into a seismic confrontation. Their sport may seem relatively united right now in putting public health first, but old divisions will resurface quickly as it works out how to get its show back on the road.

MATCH INFO

Manchester City 0

Wolves 2 (Traore 80', 90 4')

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Abu Dhabi card

5pm: Handicap (TB) Dh100,000 2,400m

5.30pm: Wathba Stallions Cup Handicap (PA) Dh 70,000 2,200m

6pm: Abu Dhabi Fillies Classic Prestige (PA) Dh110,000 1,400m

6.30pm: Abu Dhabi Colts Classic Prestige (PA) Dh110,000 1,400m

7pm: Handicap (PA) Dh85,000 1,600m

7.30pm: Maiden (PA) Dh80,000 1,600m

The National selections:

5pm: Valcartier

5.30pm: AF Taraha

6pm: Dhafra

6.30pm: Maqam

7pm: AF Mekhbat

7.30pm: Ezz Al Rawasi  

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More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
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6.30pm: Mazrat Al Ruwayah Group Two (PA) US$55,000 (Dirt) 1,600m

7.05pm: Meydan Trophy (TB) $100,000 (Turf) 1,900m

7.40pm: Handicap (TB) $135,000 (D) 1,200m

8.15pm: Balanchine Group Two (TB) $250,000 (T) 1,800m

8.50pm: Handicap (TB) $135,000 (T) 1,000m

9.25pm: Firebreak Stakes Group Three (TB) $200,000 (D) 1,600m

10pm: Handicap (TB) $175,000 (T) 2,410m

The National selections: 6.30pm: RM Lam Tara, 7.05pm: Al Mukhtar Star, 7.40pm: Bochart, 8.15pm: Magic Lily, 8.50pm: Roulston Scar, 9.25pm: Quip, 10pm: Jalmoud

LA LIGA FIXTURES

Saturday (All UAE kick-off times)

Valencia v Atletico Madrid (midnight)

Mallorca v Alaves (4pm)

Barcelona v Getafe (7pm)

Villarreal v Levante (9.30pm)

Sunday

Granada v Real Volladolid (midnight)

Sevilla v Espanyol (3pm)

Leganes v Real Betis (5pm)

Eibar v Real Sociedad (7pm)

Athletic Bilbao v Osasuna (9.30pm)

Monday

Real Madrid v Celta Vigo (midnight)

TUESDAY'S ORDER OF PLAY

Centre Court

Starting at 2pm:

Malin Cilic (CRO) v Benoit Paire (FRA) [8]

Not before 4pm:

Dan Evans (GBR) v Fabio Fogini (ITA) [4]

Not before 7pm:

Pablo Carreno Busta (SPA) v Stefanos Tsitsipas (GRE) [2]

Roberto Bautista Agut (SPA) [5] v Jan-Lennard Struff (GER)

Court One

Starting at 2pm

Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND) v Dennis Novak (AUT) 

Joao Sousa (POR) v Filip Krajinovic (SRB)

Not before 5pm:

Rajeev Ram (USA) and Joe Salisbury (GBR) [1] v Marin Cilic v Novak Djokovic (SRB)

Nikoloz Basilashvili v Ricardas Berankis (LTU)

Results

Stage 4

1. Dylan Groenewegen (NED) Jumbo-Visma 04:16:13

2. Gaviria (COL) UAE Team Emirates

3. Pascal Ackermann (GER) Bora-Hansgrohe

4. Sam Bennett (IRL) Deceuninck-QuickStep

5. Caleb Ewan (AUS) Lotto Soudal

General Classification:

1. Adam Yates (GBR) Mitchelton-Scott        16:46:15

2. Tadej Pogacar (SLO) UAE Team Emirates         0:01:07

3. Alexey Lutsenko (KAZ) Astana Pro Team          0:01:35

4. David Gaudu (FRA) Groupama-FDJ         0:01:40

5. Rafal Majka (POL) Bora-Hansgrohe

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Torque: 1075Nm
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Where to apply

Applicants should send their completed applications - CV, covering letter, sample(s) of your work, letter of recommendation - to Nick March, Assistant Editor in Chief at The National and UAE programme administrator for the Rosalynn Carter Fellowships for Mental Health Journalism, by 5pm on April 30, 2020

Please send applications to nmarch@thenational.ae and please mark the subject line as “Rosalynn Carter Fellowship for Mental Health Journalism (UAE programme application)”.

The local advisory board will consider all applications and will interview a short list of candidates in Abu Dhabi in June 2020. Successful candidates will be informed before July 30, 2020.