It's Not as Simple as Just Moving the Champions League Final to August
UEFA has evidently and tentatively moved the goalposts again.
The 2019-20 Champions League final, if everything breaks positively, will be held Aug. 29, three months after its intended date and in its original location, Istanbul, according to the Associated Press. That "if," however, is rather significant. Logistically and realistically speaking, it seems like a pipe dream at best, though you can't fault UEFA and its member associations for trying to keep hope alive. There's so much at stake both financially and competitively that they'll turn over every stone on the calendar before waving a white flag. More details surrounding UEFA's plans will surely emerge in talks slated for next week.
It's only mid-April now, and four-and-a-half months, on the surface, lends plenty of time to finding a solution. But most domestic leagues don't even have a realistic resumption date on the radar yet, and UEFA has been clear about its desire to polish off those leagues before the Champions League and Europa League can be addressed. Germany's plan to restart Bundesliga play behind closed doors at the start of May could be scuppered. Premier League meetings on Friday reportedly yielded no further clarity over when its teams can play again. It's become clear and universally accepted (outside of Belarus and Nicaragua, that is) that only when trusted public health officials give the green light will matches–even ones behind closed doors–take place. Regardless, even the best of return plans cannot account for the curveball of one positive coronavirus test.
From a purely competitive standpoint as it relates to the Champions League, the competition is midway through its round of 16. Four more second legs need to be played–Bayern Munich vs. Chelsea, Barcelona vs. Napoli, Manchester City vs. Real Madrid, Juventus vs. Lyon–to complete a quarterfinal field that already contains PSG, Atletico Madrid, RB Leipzig and Atalanta.
From there, presuming all competition constructs remain unedited, it's four two-legged quarterfinals, and two two-legged semifinals leading into the one-off final on Aug. 29, all featuring international travel and appropriate rest time in between and all completely free of any coronavirus complications that would derail everything instantly. In January, that scenario didn't seem like a fantasy world. But now? Things are just so remarkably different.
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One Champions League match has already been pegged as a catalyst for the spreading of the virus in Spain and Italy, while Liverpool's public health director made a similar claim about LFC's second-leg vs. Atletico Madrid at Anfield. Even if fans aren't allowed at these matches, and social distancing protocols are followed (i.e. not like the scene outside the Parc des Princes as PSG ousted Borussia Dortmund inside an empty stadium), the risk factor exists. There are way more than just the matchday rosters, coaching staffs and officials at these matches. Stadium stewards, broadcast crews, medical personnel and other essential individuals could take the count into the hundreds. There will be a time, and perhaps sooner than later, when that becomes acceptable, but it's difficult to envision with the way things are now.
It's hard enough for one country and its football association to come to a consensus on when its safe to stage matches in empty stadiums. UEFA needs the cooperation and coordination of five just to get to the final stage and then that of Turkey's for the neutral-site final it desires, one that you'd expect to still be played behind closed doors. Precisely why the final still needs to be at a neutral site when there is presumably no economic windfall for the host is another question entirely.
If completing the Champions League before the fall is a priority, then UEFA might need to shift another, which is the completing of its domestic seasons. The governing body has been rather direct about the importance of being patient and finishing out seasons for sporting integrity–titles, promotion and relegation, qualifying for the next season's European competitions–despite Belgium indicating it would call its season as is and Scotland's farcical vote effectively doing the same.
"We are confident that football can restart in the months to come–with conditions that will be dictated by public authorities–and believe that any decision of abandoning domestic competitions is, at this stage, premature and not justified," UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin, European Club Association chairman Andrea Agnelli and European Leagues president Lars-Christer Olsson wrote in a letter to member associations earlier this month.
Allowing those seasons the time to finish while abandoning European competitions is certainly a nuclear option, but it's one that may have to be considered–never mind the knock-on effects for the December Club World Cup (would Liverpool go as Europe's representative without a new Champions League winner?) and the start of 2020-2021 Champions League qualifying play-in rounds, which typically take place at the end of June/early July.
Regardless, completing domestic seasons at some point this summer seems feasible to a degree. Completing a continental one anytime remotely soon, given all that it would entail, seems like a reach.
