Uefa Champions League return date announced with new 'final eight' mini tournament
Europa League will follow a similar model with all remaining games to be played in Germany as Uefa outlines its plans to finish the continental season
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Your support makes all the difference.The 2019/20 Champions League will conclude with a ‘final-eight’ mini-tournament in Lisbon in August, Uefa has confirmed.
The European governing body also announced that the quarter- and semi-finals will be reduced to one leg from the standard two-leg format, with the games commencing on 12 August and the final taking place on 23 August.
All games will take place split across two stadiums, with Benfica’s Estadio do Sport Lisboa and Sporting’s Estadio Jose Alvalade selected to stage the remaining matches, with the Estadio do Sport Lisboa e Benfica chosen to stage the final after replacing Istanbul - which has been moved to 2021.
Both Porto’s Estadio do Dragao and Guimaraes’ Estadio Dom Afonso Henriques have been earmarked for the remaining round-of-16 ties that still need to be completed, meaning the second-leg ties involving both Manchester City and Chelsea could take place in Portugal on 7/8 August if they are unable to go ahead as initially scheduled.
Fans will not be allowed to attend the games under current conditions, but Uefa president Aleksander Ceferin admitted that “things change rapidly” and that the governing body “haven’t decided yet”, with a final decision to be made at the beginning of July.
All remaining European games will kick-off at 8pm BST (9pm CET), while the draw for both the quarter- and semi-finals will take place on 10 July. Should ties remain level at the end of 90 minutes, extra-time and penalties will decide a winner.
With Istanbul unable to stage the final this summer, Uefa has confirmed that the next three hosts have agreed to postpone their finals by a year, meaning that the Ataturk Olympic Stadium will still be able to stage Europe’s flagship club match. The 2022 final will now take place in St Petersburg, with Munich staging the final in 2023 and London’s Wembley Stadium in 2024.
The Europa League will follow a similar model in Germany, with Cologne, Duisburg, Dusseldorf and Gelsenkirchen all selected to stage the remaining rounds of Europe’s second-tier competition between 10 and 21 August.
Two last-16 ties, Roma vs Sevilla and Inter Milan vs Getafe, have not yet played a leg and as a result will be reduced to a one-leg tie to decide who goes through to the quarter-finals, while the remaining six ties that managed to play their first legs - including Manchester United and Wolverhampton Wanderers - will either take place at the scheduled stadiums if restrictions allow it to, or in Germany the week before the quarter-finals gets underway.
Uefa has also confirmed that new signings will not be ineligible for the remainder of the tournament, although each club will be permitted up to three new players who were already registered with the club before the last registration window four months ago.
A Uefa statement confirmed: “Teams will be allowed to register three new players on their List A for the remainder of the 2019/20 season, provided such players were already registered and eligible for the club since the last registration deadline. List A will still only be able to contain a maximum of 25 players. It will not be possible for clubs to register newly-transferred players.”
Following the meeting of Uefa’s Executive Committee to approve the measures, Ceferin said that Uefa’s swift decision to postpone Euro 2020 by 12 months ensured that they had the time to structure the end of the European season to a satisfactory standard.
“I am delighted that we are able to resume almost all of our competitions,” he said. “I am confident that we will not have to endure the fans’ absence for long and that they will be allowed into stadiums sooner rather than later.
“Uefa took a bold decision when it decided to postpone Euro 2020. But in doing so, we created the space which has allowed domestic club competitions across the continent to resume, where possible, and play to a conclusion. While the game has suffered huge difficulties as a result of the pandemic, those blows would have landed much harder if we had not shown leadership in those early days.”
Uefa has also confirmed a plan to stage the Women’s Champions League in Spain, with all remaining matches to follow the ‘Final Eight’ model across the San Mames Stadium in Bilbao and the Anoeta Stadium in San Sebastian, which will stage the final on 30 August at 7pm BST (8pm CET).
“It is of the utmost importance for us not only to complete our men’s and women’s competitions but also to finish our youth and futsal competitions whenever possible,” Ceferin added.
“We are firm believers of their importance and significance of the overall growth and development of the game, and I am delighted that we found solutions to stage the final rounds of all those competitions - particularly with the Women’s Champions League, it was important to send a strong signal that it is possible to complete this season, in a time where women’s sports have suffered substantially. This competition has exciting times ahead with the format change in 2021/2022 and we want to enhance the momentum in the women’s game, not lose it.”
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