UEFA Chief Comments on 2019-20 European Leagues Amid Pandemic

It has now been officially two weeks and change since the Royal Spanish Football Federation suspended La Liga this season following the evolving COVID-19 pandemic situation. Counting from when Real Madrid last played, it has been three weeks. With no immediate end in sight to the suspension, UEFA president Aleksander Čeferin gave some insight into the contingency planning and considerations being made behind the scenes of the European football’s governing body.

The UEFA chief set the end of June as sort of the tentative deadline to salvage the current season. In La Liga, Real Madrid’s current position means there isn’t a great deal of consternation from a purely sporting perspective if the season was scrapped. Unlike in England and certain other leagues where the leader’s position means they will be far more sensitive to a decision to cancel the 2019-20 season, there isn’t a clear front runner in Spain.

The matter becomes a little more complicated when you move further down the table due to Champions League and Europa League qualification. And this becomes further compounded when looking at the totality of the football league system due to promotion/relegation and the ripple effects throughout all the different Spanish leagues and competitions. Discussions around which approach to take will likely become the subject of intense interest the closer we get to sporting competitions being allowed to resume.