UEFA boss Ceferin fears loss of season

Aleksander Ceferin, president of Europe’s football governing body, Uefa fears that the 2019/20 football season could be one in futility unless football resumes before the end of June 2020.

Ceferin says football “will probably be lost” if the coronavirus outbreak prevents football from resuming, explaining that a June 2020 deadline will put a number of leagues across Europe under pressure to return to action behind closed doors.

In Europe, only the Belarusian Premier League is continuing as European football suffers a heavy hit as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

Uefa has also postponed one of its flagship events, Euro 2020 until next summer and have also moved their two big continental finals, the Champions League and Europa League to new dates yet to be determined.

Ceferin has now moved to declare that if football across the continent does not resume within the next three months, the 2019/20 season may be lost.

“We could start again in mid-May, in June or even late June,” Ceferin said in an interview with Italian newspaper La Repubblica.

“The season will probably be lost.”

“There is also a proposal to end this season at the beginning of the next one and then start the next one a little later,” Ceferin said.

The majority of the leagues across Europe are due to start next season at the end of August, with the Premier League due to kick off across the weekend of 7-9 August. However, the campaign cannot be moved by much given the plan to host Euro 2020 at the end of next season.