Manchester United, Inter Milan and Sevilla headline a quintet of former champions travelling to Germany for a remodelled eight-team straight knockout tournament that will crown the winner of a Europa League campaign heavily disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic, reports AFP.
All games from the quarter-finals onwards in this season's competition will be played behind closed doors as one-off ties across four venues -- Cologne, Duisburg, Dusseldorf and Gelsenkirchen -- following a five-month interruption. While a Champions League berth still awaits the victor of the final in Cologne on August 21, much has changed since the COVID-19 outbreak that brought European football to a standstill in March.
"There are rules and regulations on the bubble that's going to travel. We've got to stick together, stay together in and around the hotel and the training ground," United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer said of the strict health protocols clubs must respect.
Players and staff will undergo virus testing before departing for Germany and again on the eve of a match once arriving, a process repeated for each subsequent game in the final tournament. UEFA has advised teams to travel on charter flights and minimise contact with the general public, strongly recommending the use of exclusive hotels -- to which players will largely be confined -- in order to avoid potential cross-contamination.
Masks will not be required for substitutes and coaching staff but they must maintain social distancing when seated, with players instructed to limit contact as much as possible when warming up. Match balls will be disinfected before kick-off and at half-time.
