The decision to relocate the Leipzig-Liverpool Champions League match to Budapest, for health reasons, arouses fears of further disruption of European football competitions. And this four months before the Euro, national selection competition scheduled in twelve different countries.
The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) formalized the news in a press release dated Sunday, February 7. With Germany banning entry to its territory to travelers coming from an area where a new variant of the Covid is widespread, the Leipzig club were forced to find a “plan B” to welcome Liverpool on February 16.
“UEFA can confirm that the first leg of the 8e Champions League final between Leipzig and Liverpool will take place at the Puskas Arena in Budapest », reported the European football body. The return leg will take place in Liverpool, at Anfield Stadium, on March 10.
Leipzig initially asked the German authorities for a waiver to let Liverpool in, but the request was rejected.
Klopp would have liked an “exception”
Jürgen Klopp, the German coach of the England champions, has expressed his misunderstanding. “With all the precautions we take, our record of Covid cases and our discipline, I believe it would have been absolutely acceptable to make an exception”, he said. “Yes, there is a new variant of the virus, but we are in a bubble and we could play in Leipzig without spreading this virus”.
The European countries affected by the German regulations, in force until at least February 17, are Ireland, Portugal and the United Kingdom. However, in addition to Leipzig, another German team is opposed to an English team in the Champions League: Mönchengladbach, which is to receive Manchester City on February 24.
“We are looking for a place to welcome. We made a request to FC Midtjylland [Danemark], but also to other clubsBorussia sporting director Max Eberl said on Friday. Now we have to see what the most suitable venue will be and what it will mean financially, but we are responsible for holding the match ”.
UEFA regulations stipulate that the host club must ensure the smooth running of the game and, if necessary, find a replacement pitch, under penalty of losing the match 3-0 on the green carpet.
The euro in question
A third German club, Hoffenheim, is also concerned, by a Norwegian regulation this time. His first leg of 16e Europa League final scheduled for February 18 in Molde will have to be relocated, the government in Oslo having purely and simply closed the borders to non-residents.
This situation is not, for the moment, such as to prevent the two European competitions from going to an end according to the usual formula of round-trip matches, while the Champions League had to inaugurate in 2020 a new formula with a final tournament bringing together the last eight teams in Portugal.
The evolution of the epidemic in Europe can raise fears that measures like those taken by Germany and Norway will multiply on the continent, isolating countries again from each other.
Such a scenario would obviously endanger the Euro, postponed for a year (11 June-11 July), which UEFA still wants to organize in 2021 in twelve different countries, in accordance with the project imagined by Michel Platini.
If the Euro took place this week, Portugal would for example not have the right to come and play their group match against Germany scheduled in Munich on June 19.
