The latest situation development regarding COVID-19 has caused the world to take a break. The majority of countries implemented a curfew and total or partial lockdown. That’s why it’s no surprise that major sports events, including the EURO 2020, have modified their schedules.
While fans are disappointed and locked at home without any games to watch, sports-related organizations have another problem. UEFA Euro 2020 and Sportsbet.io officials will have to deal with an immense financial crisis that will ensue after this period of inactivity.
Even though people are mostly focused on their health these days, they can’t help but ask themselves what will happen with the upcoming EURO 2020.
All Matches Put on Hold
People in charge of sports competitions worldwide have been refusing to accept the fact that some events will have to be postponed. Until this week, no organization made an official statement about any cancellations. However, we’ve reached a point where the danger COVID-19 poses cannot be ignored anymore.
As expected, the UEFA finally announced that the UEFA EURO 2020 won’t take place in June and July this year. The primary reason for this is the health of all the players and other team members. Also, the UEFA stated that they want to avoid putting all national public services in charge of staging matches at risk.
Apart from the EURO 2020, the rest of the UEFA competitions and matches will also be postponed until the situation improves. These measures affect clubs’ and national teams’ events, as well as all friendly matches. This applies to both men’s and women’s competitions.
At the moment, the UEFA changed the dates for the EURO 2020 play-off matches and international friendly matches. Instead of March, these will take place at the beginning of June. Of course, these dates can easily be altered if the situation doesn’t improve by then.
After the decision was made and publicly stated, another issue emerged. People behind all sports events realized that the postponed competitions would have to resume eventually. The question is — when?
Domino Effect
Due to the tight schedule, a team of experts has been chosen to go through the calendar and find a way to cram all the postponed matches into it. The team will get help from leagues and club representatives to make the whole process less complicated.
Regarding this new issue, the UEFA President, Aleksander Čeferin, consulted the representatives of vital soccer associations in a video conference meeting. Now when everything is officially cancelled, their new mutual goal is to find the best solution for preventing the congestion in the 2020 soccer calendar.
All the participants of the video conference gave their best to contribute to finding the fastest and least strenuous solution. They are all aware that times like these require cooperation and rational thinking for achieving the best results.
Also, Čeferin and the rest of the team decided that the competition will keep the name EURO 2020, even though it will take place in 2021.
After he made the announcement, Čeferin spoke to the media and stated:
“We are at the helm of a sport that vast numbers of people live and breathe that has been laid low by this invisible and fast-moving opponent. It is at times like these that the football community needs to show responsibility, unity, solidarity, and altruism. The health of fans, staff, and players has to be our number one priority, and, in that spirit, UEFA tabled a range of options so that competitions can finish this season safely, and I am proud of the response of my colleagues across European football.”
We are certain that the officials will sort out whatever comes their way and that we will come out of this problem much stronger and ready to watch some amazing soccer.
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