Lisbon, Portugal | AFP | UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin is aiming to finish this year’s Champions League by the end of August as football in Europe slowly starts to bounce back from the coronavirus pandemic. “Our plan is to finish it between now and the end of August,” Ceferin said in an interview with Portuguese …
Read More »FIFA’s Infantino suspected of intervening to stop probe: report
Lausanne, Switzerland | AFP | FIFA president Gianni Infantino is suspected of having intervened with Switzerland’s attorney general to try to get an investigation dropped, a Swiss newspaper alleged on Monday. The Office of the Attorney General (OAG) launched an investigation in early 2016, shortly after Infantino was elected president of world football’s governing body, …
Read More »Qualification for next Champions League should be ‘on sporting merit’, says UEFA
Paris, France | AFP | Qualification for the next Champions League should be “on sporting merit” if domestic leagues cannot be completed but countries should “explore all possible options” to finish seasons suspended because of the coronavirus crisis, UEFA said on Thursday. “If a domestic competition is prematurely terminated for legitimate …
Read More »UEFA look for light at end of tunnel in bid to resume European football season
Paris, France | AFP | As European countries take steps towards easing lockdown measures imposed due to the coronavirus pandemic, UEFA will meet with the continent’s football clubs and associations this week to try to mark out a pathway towards resuming the season. European football’s governing body is eager to steer …
Read More »UEFA president Ceferin said leagues ready to play behind closed doors
Milan, Italy | AFP | UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin said Monday that leagues across Europe were ready to return to action behind closed doors in a bid to limit the damage caused by coronavirus. Football leagues have been suspended since mid-March due to the pandemic which has claimed more than 100,000 lives throughout the continent. …
Read More »UEFA to meet on April 23 to discuss plans for resumption of football season
Paris, France | AFP | UEFA will hold an Executive Committee meeting by videoconference next Thursday, April 23, European football’s governing body has confirmed, as it continues to look at ways of restarting the season in the midst of the coronavirus crisis. Before that, the heads of each of UEFA’s …
Read More »A month into lockdown, football forced to play waiting game
Paris, France | AFP | A month has now passed since the last football matches were played before packed stadiums in Europe, and the havoc wrought by the coronavirus pandemic means that nobody can say with any certainty when the sport might return. A crowd of 50,000 filled Ibrox Stadium in …
Read More »UEFA demand leaves Scottish football clubs in the lurch
London, United Kingdom | AFP | UEFA’s ultimatum to national leagues that a failure to complete the football season could lead to exclusion from European competition has left the continent’s less wealthy leagues, like Scotland, in limbo. Scottish clubs were due to meet by video-conference on Friday with the possibility of …
Read More »Europe mulls finishing football season at end of year
Rome, Italy | AFP | Europe’s football bosses have not given up hope of finishing this pandemic-hit season — even if it might have to be done at the start of the next one. The novel coronavirus has created an existential challenge to the world’s most widely played and watched sport. …
Read More »UEFA postpones May’s Champions League, Europa League finals
Nyon, Switzerland | AFP | UEFA announced on Monday that it has postponed the Champions League, Europa League and women’s Champions League finals, originally scheduled for May, due to the coronavirus pandemic, with no new date given. European football’s governing body had already postponed the competitions until further notice earlier this month. UEFA said that …
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