Rome (AFP)
The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) does not know when to resume the season interrupted due to the Covid-19 epidemic and has prepared "a plan A, B or C" depending on the circumstances, said its president. in an interview published on Saturday.
"No one knows when the pandemic will end. We have a plan A, B or C: we are in contact with leagues, clubs, we have a working group. We have to wait like all the other sectors," said Aleksander Ceferin in an interview with the Italian daily La Repubblica.
Asked about the possible options for resuming the football season, Mr. Ceferin replied: "start again in mid-May, in June or even at the end of June. Then if we don't succeed, the season is probably lost".
"There is even a proposal to end this season at the start of next season which would start a little later," he added. But "not knowing when the pandemic will end, we cannot have a final plan".
After a day of crisis meetings last week, UEFA has decided to postpone the Euro to the summer of 2021 and suspend all club competitions "until further notice" in the face of the spread of coronavirus . The men's C1 and C3 were interrupted at the knockout stage, the women's C1 at the quarterfinals.
Referring to the request of certain clubs to reduce the salaries of their players in the face of the crisis, Mr. Ceferin simply stressed that "there is no room for selfishness" in this situation, ensuring that "many players agree".
"The crisis is also hitting clubs," he said, "and nothing will be the same again after this terrible year," he added.
He spoke of possible modifications to the rules of financial fair play (FPF), which prohibits a club engaged in European competition from spending more than what it earns and closely regulates the capital injections from its owners.
In this interview, the Slovenian, head of UEFA since September 2016, also made more political comments on the European Union in these times of coronavirus crisis: "I am disappointed with the EU. T "Europe is dominated by an excess of rules, divided, and for this reason it is weaker. There is no solidarity and it is very sad".
© 2020 AFP