UEFA said on Thursday that it is considering two possibilities for resuming its Champions League and Europa League competitions and urged domestic leagues to “explore all possible options” to finish their domestic seasons, reports Reuters.
Football across Europe ground to a halt in March due to the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic and no leagues have yet to resume play. UEFA said in a statement that its Calendar Working Group was examining two scenarios, with both envisaging domestic football starting before European competitions.
One scenario would run domestic and European competitions in parallel while the other would involve completing domestic matches before re-starting UEFA competitions in August.
European soccer’s governing body is keen for domestic seasons to be fully completed, but has drawn up guidelines for how qualification for next season’s club competitions should be decided if some leagues cannot complete their campaigns. UEFA said, in such a case, the slots for Champions League and Europa League places should be determined on “sporting merit” and through a transparent process.
The body warned that it reserved the right to refuse admission if its guidelines were not followed and if “the clubs were selected pursuant to a procedure which was not objective, transparent and non-discriminatory so that the selected clubs could not be considered as having been qualified on sporting merit”.
