| Uefa update due on Tuesday on plans to finish season 22:54 - Apr 20 with 105 views | BringBackTheRedRoom |
Uefa will provide an update on plans to finish the 2019-20 season to all its 55 national associations at a video conference on Tuesday.
European football's governing body hopes to end the campaign in August, although with every league bar Belarus still suspended there are doubts over whether that deadline can be met.
Uefa has launched two working groups, one specifically assessing the fixture calendar. It is hoped specific proposals will be presented by mid-May at the latest.
However, the continuing uncertainty over the spread of coronavirus is creating major issues, with some leagues - including Germany and Denmark - talking optimistically about a resumption next month, while others - England among them - believe it will be June at the earliest before they can play games, and some Premier League clubs feel it will be longer than that.
Uefa is still hoping to complete its own tournaments in the normal two-legged format. However, there is an understanding that it may not be possible, so one-off games, and a week-long mini-tournament from the quarter-finals onwards for both the Champions League and Europa League, have also been discussed.
Tuesday's meeting will be followed on Thursday by a meeting of the Uefa executive committee.
That is expected to provide an update on the Womens' European Championship and the Nations League, both of which have been moved to allow Euro 2020 to take place a year later than scheduled, plus plans to relax financial regulations this season.
In addition, it is anticipated, Uefa will confirm that it will listen to requests to end domestic leagues early.
It has previously warned against this, saying countries risk their places in next season's European competitions.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/52353856 | |
| ‘Where there is harmony, may we bring discord. Where there is truth, may we bring error. Where there is faith, may we bring doubt. And where there is hope, may we bring despair’ |
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| Uefa update due on Tuesday on plans to finish season on 08:55 - Apr 21 with 90 views | spell_chekker |
From memory, the Belgian and Scottish lower leagues are cancelled.
No coronavirus in Belarus. [Post edited 21 Apr 2020 8:57]
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| Uefa update due on Tuesday on plans to finish season on 08:58 - Apr 21 with 85 views | spell_chekker |
I see that they're starting to link coronavirus cases to the Liverpool v Atletico match. | |
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| Uefa update due on Tuesday on plans to finish season on 11:26 - Apr 21 with 77 views | BringBackTheRedRoom |
Liverpool v Atletico Madrid virus link an 'interesting hypothesis'
Speculation over a possible link between coronavirus cases in Liverpool and the club's Champions League match with Atletico Madrid last month is an "interesting hypothesis", a scientific adviser to the UK government has said.
Some coronavirus deaths in Liverpool have been blamed on the 11 March match at Anfield, which was attended by more than 52,000 people, including 3,000 from Madrid, where a partial lockdown was already in force.
While there is no confirmed link between the match and any coronavirus cases, the government's deputy chief scientific adviser, Angela McLean, said it warranted further investigation.
"It will be very interesting to see in the future, when all the science is done, what relationship there is between the viruses that have circulated in Liverpool and the viruses that have circulated in Spain," she said at the UK government's daily coronavirus news briefing on Monday.
Liverpool city council's director of public health Matthew Ashton previously told the Guardian the match should have been called off, while the mayor of Madrid, Jose Luis Martinez-Almeida, said over the weekend that it was a "mistake" to allow thousands of Atletico fans to attend.
"It didn't make any sense that 3,000 Atletico fans could travel to Anfield at that time," Martinez-Almedia told Spanish radio station Onda Cero.
Latest figures show that 246 people have died with coronavirus in Liverpool's NHS hospitals.
Madrid, meanwhile, is one of Europe's worst affected cities. Spain has the second-highest number of confirmed infection cases in the world, behind the US, figures from Johns Hopkins University say.
The country's death toll climbed close to 21,000 on Monday.
Speaking at Monday's news briefing, UK chancellor Rishi Sunak rejected claims the government was too slow to cancel large sporting events in the days before the coronavirus lockdown was enforced.
The Cheltenham Festival, along with Liverpool's Champions League match with Atletico, went ahead in the second week of March. There were 251,684 racegoers in attendance across the four days of the Festival, while 68,500 watched the Cheltenham Gold Cup on 13 March.
Strict limits on daily life - such as requiring people to stay at home, shutting many businesses and preventing gatherings of more than two people - were introduced on 23 March.
"There is often a wrong time to put certain measures in place, thinking about sustainability and everything else," Sunak said.
"At all parts of this we have been guided by that science, we have been guided by making the right decisions at the right time, and I stand by that."
Analysis
BBC sports editor Dan Roan:
This is the furthest a senior government adviser has gone in admitting there may be a link between Liverpool's match against Atletico Madrid and the coronavirus outbreak that the city has since suffered. Certainly, deputy chief scientific adviser Angela McLean did not rule out a connection when asked about the issue by a reporter from the Liverpool Echo.
At this stage it is impossible to know whether - and to what extent - the Champions League game contributed to the surge of deaths on Merseyside that followed. (Just as we do not know how many of the quarter of a million racing fans who visited the Cheltenham Festival that same week caught the virus from being there.)
But ever since the match, there has been mounting concern that thousands of fans from one of the early European epicentres of the pandemic were allowed to travel to Anfield, even after Spain had closed schools and banned mass gatherings. Two days later, of course, the Premier League suspended the season, effectively taking the decision out of the government's hands.
McLean's comments could add to the pressure on the government, those advising ministers at the time, and Uefa.
Uefa and Liverpool declined to comment when contacted by BBC Sport.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/52362099 | |
| ‘Where there is harmony, may we bring discord. Where there is truth, may we bring error. Where there is faith, may we bring doubt. And where there is hope, may we bring despair’ |
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| Uefa update due on Tuesday on plans to finish season on 12:29 - Apr 21 with 70 views | spell_chekker |
As well as that, they let a few thousand Italians into France for the Lyon v Juventus game.
The virus was quite well advanced in Italy at that stage.
Lyon is now a bit of a hot spot. | |
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