The Union of European Football Federations (UEFA) announced on Monday a decision to postpone the meeting of its Executive Board, initially scheduled for May 27, to June 17, 2020 due to ‘remaining open points.’
“UEFA today announced that the next meeting of its Executive Committee, originally scheduled for 27 May, has been postponed to 17 June 2020, due to the existence of some remaining open points regarding a small number of proposed venues for the rearranged UEFA EURO 2020 next year,” the statement from the European governing body of football reads.
The UEFA announced on March 17 a decision to postpone the 2020 UEFA Euro Cup for exactly one year as a preventive measure against the ongoing global spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. The championship was rescheduled to be held between June 11 and July 11, 2021.
As reported earlier, all European cities selected to host matches of the 2020 UEFA Euro Cup were obliged to confirm their intentions to carry on with their plans to host the matches next year. As of May 6, letters of intention had been submitted by St. Petersburg, London, Munich, Dublin, Copenhagen, Bucharest and Baku.
Russia’s second largest city of St. Petersburg was granted the right to host three group stage matches and one of the quarterfinals of the 2020 UEFA Euro Cup. The newly built football arena in St. Petersburg hosted the opening and final matches of the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup and also served as one of the 12 stadiums across the country hosting matches of the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
The over 62,300-seat capacity stadium was laid down in the western part of Krestovsky Island in St. Petersburg in 2007 and commissioned in early 2017. It serves as a home stadium for Zenit St. Petersburg football club.
The matches of the 2020 Euro Cup were initially scheduled to be held at stadiums in 12 different cities across Europe, namely in London (England), Munich (Germany), Rome (Italy), Baku (Azerbaijan), St. Petersburg (Russia), Bucharest (Romania), Amsterdam (The Netherlands), Dublin (Ireland), Bilbao (Spain), Budapest (Hungary), Glasgow (Scotland) and Copenhagen (Denmark) between June 12 and July 12, 2020.
A decision to hold the 2020 Euro Cup, which is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year, in various European countries instead of in one or two hosting countries was made at the UEFA Executive Committee’s meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland, on December 6, 2012.
COVID-19
In late December 2019, Chinese officials notified the World Health Organization (WHO) about the outbreak of a previously unknown pneumonia in the city of Wuhan, in central China. Since then, cases of the novel coronavirus — named COVID-19 by the WHO — have been reported in every corner of the globe, including Russia.
On March 11, 2020, the WHO declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic. According to the latest statistics, over 4,840,000 people have been infected worldwide and more than 317,300 deaths have been reported. In addition, so far, over 1,875,000 individuals have recovered from the illness across the globe.
To date, a total of 290,678 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Russia, with 70,209 patients having recovered from the virus. Russia’s latest data indicates 2,722 fatalities nationwide. Earlier, the Russian government set up an Internet hotline to keep the public updated on the coronavirus situation.
