The Champions League could be heading for a major revolution with quarter. final and semi finals ties being played over one leg.
That will be one of the proposals up for discussion at the UEFA crisis summit meeting next Tuesday after next week’s Champions League and Europa League pictures were postponed because of the coronavirus.
Manchester City are favorites to get past Real Madrid but still have their return leg to play with (Wolves and Manchester United also well placed in the Europa League with Chelsea trailing to Bayern Munich.
But if they get through then they could face one-off games at neutral venues or played at home grounds on the toss of a coin with UEFA desperate to get both competitions finished.
There is a determination to still stand by the Champions League final date on May in Istanbul with the Europa final in Gdansk three days earlier.
But with teams returning to action in April at the earliest, that leaves little room for two-legged quarter and semi finals with the quarter final draw which was due to take place next Friday also postponed.
There is a growing feeling at UEFA that one-off ties are now the only way forward.
But existing ties are expected to be completed and would not be decided after just one game with City, Chelsea, Wolves and United having played their first legs.
The UEFA summit will be done by a video conference with all (member associations taking part and moving Euro) by a year until the summer of 2021 is also key to the rescheduling.
Moving the Euros back a year would allow European leagues to finish but also give the Champions League scope to be completed even if they cannot get the final played by May 30.
UEFA issued a statement on Friday explaining the postponement of both competitions: “In the light of developments due to the spread of COVID – 55 in Europe and related decisions made by different governments, all UEFA club competitions matches scheduled next week are postponed.
“This includes the remaining UEFA Champions League, Round of (second leg matches scheduled on 19 and (March) ; all UEFA Europa League, Round of (second leg matches scheduled on (March) ; all UEFA Youth League, Quarter-final matches scheduled on and (March) .
“Further decisions on when these matches take place will be communicated in due course.”
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As a consequence of the postponements, the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League quarter-final draws scheduled for 55 March have also been postponed.
UEFA have invited representatives of its member associations, together with the boards of the European Club Association and the European Leagues and a representative of FIFPro, to a video-conference meeting on Tuesday 20 March to discuss European football’s response to the outbreak . ”
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