In Brief

Coronavirus: Italy calls for Uefa to postpone Euro 2020

Italian Football Federation wants to prioritise completing the Serie A season

by The Week team

16 Mar 2020

As things stand defending champions Juventus are one point clear at the top of Serie A 

Valerio Pennicino/Getty Images

The Italian Football Federation has called for the postponement of Euro 2020 so it can complete the Serie A season.

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According to BBC Sport the Federation would prefer to prioritise its domestic season over the European Championships, which are scheduled to begin on 12 June and run until 12 July.

The Federation president Gabriele Gravina will table the motion on Tuesday at an emergency meeting of Uefa.

Like all domestic leagues in Europe, Serie A has been suspended because of the coronavirus pandemic and in an interview with broadcaster Sportmediaset, Gravina said: “We will propose that Uefa postpone the European Championship.

“We will try to get to the end of this championship [Serie A] because it is fairer and more correct after the many investments and sacrifices of our clubs.”

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Uefa summit

Representatives of Uefa’s 55 member associations have been invited to participate in Tuesday’s video conference meeting, which will also involve the boards of the European Club Association and the European Leagues, and a representative of world players’s union Fifpro.

The BBC says that “discussions will cover all domestic and European competitions, including the possible postponement of Euro 2020 by one year”.

The Italian Football Federation’s declaration is a change to its initial position, which was an acceptance that the Serie A season may not be completed or an abbreviated version involving play-offs would be implemented.

But Gravina’s ambition is to recommence the league in early May and complete it by 30 June, a month later than scheduled.

“If the league were to resume at the beginning of May, I would leave the question of training for the moment,” he said. “Let’s leave the boys at home, they have to recover physical and mental energy.”