European football’s governing body will demand compensation of about £275 million from its clubs and leagues to postpone Euro 2020 by a year in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
This is what UEFA estimates it will cost to push the European Championships back by 12 months to June 2021 and will be relayed to European football’s stakeholders in emergency meetings on Tuesday, during which it will be confirmed the tournament will be delayed by a year.
The clear priority of member leagues and clubs is to somehow complete the current season rather than abort competitions and treat the existing standings as final or rule the campaign null and void,
given the numerous legal challenges that would be guaranteed to arise as a result.
Despite the scale and unpredictability of the global COVID-19 outbreak, most European leagues and clubs are understood to retain hope that their competitions can still be finished in May and June.
Other options on the table include extending the action into July or later — which could cause huge complications around player contracts that expire on June 30 — and introducing play-off systems.
Euro 2020 was due to start on June 12 and was planned to take place in 12 host cities, with the semi-finals and final at Wembley culminating on July 12.
Once UEFA has explained its plan, a task force will be established comprising representatives of UEFA, the European Club Association (ECA) and European Leagues (EL) to analyse the proposals in greater detail and produce a potential schedule as a matter of urgency.
Tuesday’s critical talks will take place using videoconference facilities.
The first meeting involves UEFA officials, the ECA and EL boards and a representative of players union FIFPro. It will be followed by another meeting between UEFA and its 55 member associations, including the English FA.
How to proceed with this season’s remaining Champions League and Europa League fixtures will also be discussed, as well as the knock-on effect of delaying Euro 2020 on next year’s Women’s European Championships, currently scheduled to take place in England in July and August 2021.
The Athletic has spoken to a number of sources who fear that whatever is decided will be superseded by events relating to what is now an escalating international health crisis.