UEFA postpone Euro 2020 by twelve months
The Euro 2020 soccer Championship, trumpeted as a continent-wide feast of football from Dublin to Baku to mark UEFA's 60th anniversary, was postponed for a year on Tuesday as the coronavirus pandemic claimed its biggest sporting casualty yet.
The fate of the 24-nation, month-long showpiece due to get started on in June had hung in the total amount ever since Europe's domestic leagues commenced shutting down in the wake of the sweeping health crisis, which includes killed around 7,000 people worldwide.
UEFA eventually relayed the news headlines after a crisis video conference with all 55 of its affiliated national federations and representatives from clubs and leagues.
"We are in the helm of a sport that huge numbers of folks live and breathe that is laid low by this invisible and fast-moving opponent," UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin explained in a statement confirming what the Norwegian and Swedish FAs experienced already leaked earlier in the day.
"It is sometimes just like these, that the soccer community needs to display responsibility, unity, solidarity and altruism."
Even as the video conference was ongoing, Norway's FA broke ranks to verify via Twitter that the tournament had been postponed for the very first time in its history.
Swedish FA chairman Karl-Erik Nilsson also sent a note to Reuters through the video conference. "Postponed until 11/6- 11/7 2021," he said.
It was a widely expected approach, with pressure ramping up from Europe's big household soccer leagues.
Before, Reuters learned that UEFA had cancelled its resort bookings in Copenhagen, one of the 12 host places staging the tournament.
The CPH Hotel said UEFA had booked 80 of its 102 rooms but cancelled them a little over yesterday.
Europe's flagship tournament, staged every four years and second and then FIFA's World Cup with regards to prestige in soccer, might now get staged from June 11 to July 12, 2021.
Sixteen playoff complements were because of be held on March 26 and 31 to choose the entire line-up of nations for the tournament. They will now be enjoyed in the overseas window in the beginning of June, at the mercy of a analysis of the situation.
The brand new coronavirus has infected almost 180,000 persons worldwide since emerging in China, and almost all of Europe now finds itself in virtual lockdown as governments desperately try to stop the spread of the condition.
The sporting calendar has been shredded, with a bunch of blue-riband events cancelled and competitions suspended, and the fate of the Tokyo Olympics this season now hangs in the total amount.
