UEFA announces further postponements on Wednesday

(Photo: HNS)

ZAGREB, 1 April 2020 – European football’s governing body, UEFA, held a video conference today with all 55 member federations, after which the UEFA Executive Board made a series of decisions, the Croatian Football Federation said.

During the video conference, the federation’s Secretaries-General were briefed on the proposals of the task forces formed on March 17 to analyze the competition calendar and other challenges caused by the global pandemic of the new coronavirus, which has halted sports competitions around the world.

The president of the Croatian Football Federation, Davor Suker, participated in the decision-making process as a member of the UEFA Executive Board, while Executive Director Marijan Kustic and Head of International Affairs and Licensing Department Ivancica Sudac participated in the video conference.

The UEFA Executive Board made the following decisions:

1. All senior men’s and women’s national team matches scheduled to be played in June 2020 have been postponed until further notice. These include the UEFA EURO 2020 playoffs and the 2021 European Championship Qualifiers.
2. All other UEFA competitive matches, including centralised international friendly matches, have been postponed until further notice.
3. Youth matches:
   a. The UEFA U-17 European Championship, scheduled for May 2020, is canceled
   b. The UEFA U-19 European Girls Championship, scheduled for July 2020, is canceled.
   c. The UEFA U-17 European Girls Championship, scheduled for May 2020, is postponed until further notice (because it is an exclusive competition for the FIFA U-17 World Cup)
   d. The UEFA U-19 European Championship, scheduled for July 2020, is postponed until further notice (because it is an exclusive competition for the FIFA U-19 World Cup)
4. The UEFA Champions League futsal final, scheduled for April 2020, is postponed until further notice.
5. Deadlines for all UEFA club competitions in the 2020/21 competition year are delayed until further notice. UEFA will subsequently set new deadlines.

Licensing and financial fair play

The Executive Board reiterated its full commitment to club licensing and financial fair play and concluded that due to the current state of emergency certain interventions need to be made to facilitate the work of alliances and clubs. 

The Executive Board supported the proposal to allow national federations more time to complete the licensing process until the club access to UEFA competitions was redefined.

As a result of the uncertainty created by the current situation, the Executive Board has decided to suspend the provisions of the club licensing criteria relating to the preparation and assessment of the future financial information of the clubs (budget). The decision is solely for participation in UEFA competitions in the 2020/21 competition year.