[ad_1]
The fate of Euro 2020 won’t be decided until March, but UEFA is hopeful that vaccination efforts will allow the governing body to stick to its original plan.
The 24-country showpiece, scheduled for June 11, has been postponed for 12 months after last year’s COVID-19 outbreak.
The 2020 edition was to be the first staging across the continent, rather than by a single nation or joint hosts.
The host cities are Glasgow, Dublin, Bilbao, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Munich, Rome, Saint Petersburg, Bucharest, Budapest and Baku, with the semi-finals and final at Wembley Stadium in London.
UEFA had hoped that a one-year wait would have allowed fans to be present at matches but, with most football matches continuing to take place behind closed doors, that prospect depends on an improvement in the situation.
Wembley is set to host the final on July 11
UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin hopes that vaccination programs, evolving at different rates in different host countries, will be the key to sticking to the initial plan.
“The vaccination has started and I think we can have stalls full this summer,” Ceferin said in a recent interview with the Serbian newspaper. Informant.
“Right now the plan is to play in all 12 countries. Of course, there are backup options in case one country has a problem.”
But Ceferin admits that it may be necessary to juggle the organizational plan and perhaps different levels of using the stadium’s capacity.
“We are ready to organize competitions in 11, 10 or 9 cities … and even in one country if necessary. However, I am 99.9% sure that we will have the European Championship in the 12 cities , as expected, “he said.
UEFA has confirmed that it is working on four operational scenarios – for full stadiums, 50-100% capacity or 20-30% capacity and games behind closed doors.
Host cities have been invited to come up with two to three plans among these options and it is possible that different approaches will be taken in each location.
“A decision on which scenario will be applied individually in each city during the tournament will be taken on March 5, 2021,” UEFA said in a statement.
[ad_2]
Source link
