Champions League to be completed with eight-team tournament in Lisbon

NYON: This season’s Champions League, suspended in March because of the Covid-19 pandemic, will be completed with an eight-team mini-tournament which will be held in Lisbon in August, European football’s governing body UEFA said on Wednesday.

The quarter-finals and semi-finals will be staged over one leg, instead of the usual two, with the final to be held on August 23, UEFA deputy general secretary Giorgio Marchetti said after an executive committee meeting held by video conference.

The four last-16, second leg matches which still have to be played — Manchester City v Real Madrid, Bayern Munich v Chelsea, Juventus v Olympique Lyonnais and Barcelona v Napoli — will take place on August 7/8, either at the originally scheduled venues or in Portugal.

Paris St Germain, Atletico Madrid, Atalanta and RB Leipzig have already qualified for the quarter-finals.

We don’t think we can have spectators but things are changing rapidly and we will assess the situation at the beginning of January.” he told a video news conference.

One month ago, I couldn’t even say if we could play the competition.”

He added there was no plan B in case the public health situation in Portugal worsened although UEFA was monitoring the situation daily.

The plan allows for a quicker completion of the season than the traditional two-legged home and away format.

UEFA said all matches would be split between Benfica’s Estadio da Luz, and the nearby Estadio Jose Alvalade, home of Sporting.

The 65,000-capacity Estadio da Luz hosted the final of Euro 2004 and the Champions League final in 2014, while Sporting’s 50,000-seater stadium was also used at Euro 2004 and for the UEFA Cup final in 2005.

Portugal’s credentials to host the mini-tournament were boosted by the fact that it has not been as badly hit by the pandemic as other western European countries, and it has no clubs left in the competition. The Portuguese league recently resumed matches behind closed doors.

Istanbul, which was due to host the 2020 final, will now instead be the venue for the 2021 edition, with all other scheduled hosts — St Petersburg, Munich and London — moving back a year, UEFA said.

A similar format will be used to decide the Europa League competition in Germany from August 10 to August 21. with matches in Duisburg, Duesseldorf, Gelsenkirchen and Cologne, which will host the final.

It was originally scheduled to be on May 27 in Gdansk, Poland. The Polish city will host the 2021 final.

Only six of eight first-leg games in the round of 16 were played. Single games have been ordered for Inter Milan-Getafe and Roma-Sevilla, which are likely to be in Germany.

The women’s Champions League will be staged as an eight-team mini-tournament in the Spanish cities of Bilbao and San Sebastian with the final on August 30.

UEFA competitions are scheduled to restart after the completion deadline for domestic leagues and cups on August 3. They were given priority to stabilize clubs and the European soccer economy and decide entries to next season’s qualifying rounds, which begin on August 8 in the Champions League.

UEFA said next season’s group stages will begin one month later than usual on October 20 in the Champions League and October 22 in the Europa League. The draws will be made on October 1-2 in Athens, instead of the usual venue Monaco.

The biggest decision during the shutdown was UEFA postponing the European Championship until June 2021. All 12 host cities, in 12 countries, were reconfirmed Wednesday to stage their games next year.

Four teams are still to qualify for the 24-nation Euro 2020 line-up. Playoffs involving 16 teams will be played on October 8 and November 12.