UEFA to reschedule women's Euro 2021, Nations League finals

The women's 2021 European Championship and next year's Nations League finals will both be rescheduled for a later date after Euro 2020 was postponed by 12 months due to the coronavirus pandemic, UEFA said. Both tournaments were due to take place in June and July next year, with the latter being held in England, but the move by European football's governing body means neither competition will clash with the rearranged men's European Championship. The latter competition, to be played in 12 different cities across the continent with the semi-finals and final in London, will now take place from June 11 to July 11 next year, UEFA said earlier in the day, although those dates are not yet officially confirmed.

UEFA to reschedule women's Euro 2021

The women's Euro was scheduled to run from July 7 to August 1 next year, with the final also at Wembley. In addition to those tournaments, the 2021 Under-21 European Championship, due to be staged in Slovenia and Hungary, has also been postponed. The announcements were made as UEFA said it had agreed on a course of action following a series of crisis meetings on Tuesday involving the European Club Association, the European Leagues body representing nearly a thousand clubs in 29 countries, and also the players' union FIFPro.

A statement said that "the parties consider it is their duty to take a responsible lead in developing a united European approach in response to the global pandemic". Europe has become the epicentre of the coronavirus pandemic, with France on Tuesday joining Italy and Spain in applying strict lockdown measures and European leaders also planning to ban all non-essential travel into the continent. The club season has been frozen across Europe, with league campaigns still having around two months to run and the Champions League and Europa League having ground to a halt at the last-16 stage.

UEFA did not reveal a specific way forward for those tournaments but said that they had made "a commitment" to finish all domestic and club competitions by June 30, "should the situation improve and resuming playing be appropriate and prudent enough." Play-off matches to decide the final four berths at the European Championship, which were initially due to be played this month, have now been provisionally pencilled in for June, "subject to a review of the situation".

Image credits: AP