UEFA will hold emergency meetings on Tuesday as they look to make crucial decisions which will impact both domestic and international football in the coming months.
The coronavirus pandemic is now hitting Europe particularly hard, with countries including Italy, Spain and France recording significant increases in cases and deaths.
SEE MORE: Spanish football coach dies from coronavirus aged just 21
After various individuals within football also tested positive for coronavirus, domestic football has gradually ground to a halt across Europe, with all fixtures suspended in the coming weeks.
UEFA will now hold meetings on Tuesday to try and pave the way on how things will be sorted out, and there are three main decisions that will come from their discussions.
What will happen to EURO 2020?
Given the logistics and timing of the tournament, it is surely going to be impossible for UEFA to decide that it should go ahead as planned this summer.
Whether it’s down the uncertainty over the games being played at all or being forced to play behind closed doors, it arguably doesn’t make any sense for UEFA to stick with the current schedule.
In turn, it perhaps comes down to whether it will be moved to 2021 instead or if it will be cancelled if it’s decided that there might not be the adequate infrastructure and time to play it at a later date.
Gabriele Gravina, the president of the Italian Football Federation, told Sports Mediaset: “We will propose to UEFA the delay of the European Championships.
“We will try to get to the end of this [domestic] championship because it is fairer and more correct after the many investments and sacrifices of our clubs.”
When will domestic football resume?
While this is not something that UEFA will necessarily decide, their decision on the above matter could have a direct knock-on effect.
If the summer is freed up for domestic leagues to resume and complete their campaigns, that will lead to fair outcomes across the board for all the clubs concerned.
That said, there is also so much uncertainty over the extent and length of time that the coronavirus will continue to cause tragedy and disruption at all levels, and so it remains to be seen if it’s safe to resume games in the near future.
How will the Champions League, Europa League be completed?
This is certainly within UEFA’s powers and it has widely been suggested that we could see a reduced competition to ensure that there is time to finish both.
Whether that is one-off games from the quarter-finals onwards or a more congested fixture schedule to get games played in the same city over a few days is up for debate still.
Either way, UEFA will have to make a decision on finding a winner for both competitions and the meeting on Tuesday could deliver key answers on that topic.