[ad_1]
The ‘Final Eight’ format for the Champions League won’t be repeated in future, UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin has instructed AFP, saying it’s “impossible” to seek out house in an already packed calendar. “This tournament might be interesting in the future, but I don’t think we can do it, because the calendar is so dense,” Ceferin instructed AFP in an unique interview in Lisbon, the place this season’s Champions League is being performed to a conclusion.
“I don’t know where I can put a tournament for a week or two in May. I think it’s impossible,” he stated.
Before the coronavirus pandemic, UEFA was busy considering modifications to the format of the Champions League from 2024 onwards.
This yr, all ties from the quarter-finals onwards are being performed as one-off matches behind closed doorways within the Portuguese capital as UEFA rushes to complete the competitors after an enforced hiatus of 5 months due to the pandemic.
This season’s remaining was presupposed to be performed in Istanbul on the finish of May. Now it’s going to go forward in an empty Estadio da Luz on August 23, with the Turkish metropolis having been awarded the internet hosting of subsequent yr’s remaining as an alternative.
But that’s topic to the pandemic being underneath management by then.
“I am optimistic by nature, and I think that things will get better into next year and we will have normal football back, good old football with spectators, so we don’t have a Plan B,” Ceferin stated.
“You have to know that until March we didn’t have any plan, and then we had a Plan B, Plan C, Plan D, so we will adapt but I am sure the world cannot stop forever because of this virus,” added Ceferin, the Slovenian who grew to become president of European soccer’s governing physique in 2016.
“I expect a vaccine, as soon as possible I hope, so no, we don’t have a plan to do the same competition next year.”
– ‘Moments of nervousness’ –
Ceferin was talking the day after Paris Saint-Germain beat Atalanta 2-1 in a dramatic first quarter-final of the competitors.
The ‘Final Eight’ is happening in strict situations, together with common testing and the variety of individuals coming into stadiums saved to a minimal.
On Thursday, Atletico Madrid play RB Leipzig within the second quarter-final, with the Spaniards arriving in Portugal after a scare on the weekend when it was revealed two of their gamers had examined constructive for COVID-19.
Ceferin stated he was at all times assured the Champions League can be accomplished, together with the Europa League, which is being performed to a end in related situations in Germany.
Promoted
“I was sure that we would do this. I had moments of nervousness but I never gave up on the project,” he stated.
“At the moment, now all the teams are in Portugal and in a bubble, I am much calmer. Because when they are at home, and they meet family and friends, it is always a risk.”
Topics talked about on this article
[ad_2]
Source hyperlink