The unusual format of the upcoming Euro 2020 is associated with the 60th anniversary of the first Euro. In honor of this anniversary, the UEFA has decided to hold the tournament in various major European cities for the first time in history. All years before the Euro was held either in one country or on the territory of two bordering states.
In fact, such a format simply leaves UEFA with no options. For example, the World Ice Hockey Championship 2020 should be hosted by Switzerland. The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) hopes to hold the tournament on time, and the country still has enough outdoor advertising for the World Cup-2020.
IIHF President Rene Fasel admits that the chances of holding the tournament are melting day by day, but continues to look forward to a successful resolution of the situation. In contrast, a major football tournament of the year is held on the territories of 11 countries. Therefore, safe conditions are simply impossible to arrange in an up-to-date pandemic situation, so almost no one has any doubts about postponing Euro 2020.
Football in Europe has held its breath. Almost all tournaments are stopped, from national leagues to the Champions League and the Europa League. At the moment, only Russian, Turkey, and Ukrainian championships are still afloat among the main tournaments, but even in these countries, the competition may pause in the coming days.
Everything will be clarified tomorrow, on the 17th of March, 2020. UEFA should announce the final decision to postpone the European Football Championship. The national federations will also be repelled because UEFA may insist on asking them to interrupt the competitions if they have not already done so.
In such a situation, the most interesting question is the following: when exactly will the Euro pass?
There are enough options; they will be considered at the meeting of the UEFA Executive Committee on March 17. Among other things, the idea of postponing the tournament for one year is being studied; then, the European Championship will be held in summer 2021. But there is also a second proposal, which has already been reported in the media.
What Are Teams Qualified for the Group Stage?
The draw of the group stage took place on November 30 in Bucharest.
| Group | A | B | C | D | E | F |
Wales Italy Switzerland Turkey | Belgium Denmark Russia Finland | Netherlands Austria Ukraine Winner of the play-off qualifying match (way D /A) | Czech Republic England Croatia Winner of qualifying match (way C) | Poland Spain Sweden Winner of qualifying matches (way B) | Winner of the play-off qualifying match A (D)*, Portugal France Germany |
* The winners of the test matches will be determined in March 2020.
Last 16 Schedule
| June 2020 | |
| 27 | 1st place Group A – 2nd place Group C |
| 27 | 2nd place Group A – 2nd place Group B |
| 28 | 3rd place Group B -Group A/D/E/F |
| 28 | 1st place of Group C – 3rd place of Group D/E/F |
| 29 | 1st place of group F – 3rd place, Group A/B/C |
| 29 | 2nd place of Group D – 2nd place, Group E |
| 30 | 2nd place of Group E – 3rd place, Group A/B/C/D/ |
| 30 | 1st place Group D – 2nd place Group F |
Quarter-Finals
| July 2020 | |
| 3 | First and second ⅛ finals winners |
| 3 | Third and fourth ⅛ finals winners |
| 4 | Fifth and sixth ⅛ finals winners |
| 4 | Seventh and eighth ⅛ finals winners |
Semifinals
- July 7th, 2020, London. Winners of the first and second ¼ finals
- July 8th, 2020, London. Winners of the third and fourth ¼ finals
Final
July 12th, 2020, London. Winners of the first and second ½ finals
How Coronavirus Pandemic May Influence Euro 2020?
Most European sports leagues are suspended (for now) until early to mid-April, which means that the football authorities expect the danger to be faded by that time. However, it is difficult not to think about a less pleasant scenario in which the pause will be so long that the football season will be lost.
The calendar has already gone wrong since it was not possible to finish the first stage of the Champion League playoffs, and there are still a lot of matches to be played in other tournaments. The chaos generated by the Coronavirus automatically affects the next football season. How to determine the champion? Who will be qualified for the last European Cup places?
During the video conference on Tuesday, UEFA will offer a representative of all 55 European federations to acknowledge the teams, which currently lead the tournament tables of their leagues, the champions of their countries. This information is recently reported in the Spanish newspaper AS.
According to the newspaper, UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin confirmed that he supports this format of determining the champion at the time of suspension of each of the national championships. The downgrading and promotion of teams in divisions will be determined by the national championship management without UEFA participation.
The Italian newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport estimates the total cost of Euro 2020 about 2.2 billion euros. Approximately 700 million euros is the cost of the tournament, 371 million euros will be spent on bonuses for participating countries, 775 million have been reserved for the project “Hat-Trick” for all 55 federations of the UEFA, and another 200 million euros should be paid in total to clubs that delegate their players to the national teams. At the same time, the probable postponement of the Euro 2020 is estimated by the UEFA headquarters at about 300 million euros.
According to the latest data, more than 173 thousand cases of coronavirus infection have been recorded in the world. At the same time, 6,664 people died, and 77,775 were recovered. The World Health Organization has declared a coronavirus pandemic.
