Lausanne (AFP)

UEFA does not want a Euro without an audience, and will adjust by the end of April its initial plan of twelve host cities in twelve countries if some cannot receive spectators, she announced on Wednesday. .

"If a city came to propose a scenario behind closed doors", the meetings which were to be held there "could" be transferred "to other cities which have the capacity to welcome spectators", indicated the European body. to AFP.

On Sunday, UEFA boss Aleksander Ceferin told Croatian newspaper Sportske Novosti that the Euro matches (11 June-11 July), already postponed for a year due to the pandemic, would "not be contested in front of empty stands ".

"All the hosts will have to guarantee the presence of the supporters", had insisted the leader, while the authority envisaged until then four options for each city: full stadium, 50 to 100% of spectators, 20 to 30%, or a closed door .

While the spread of Covid-19 variants prevents any relaxation of health precautions in Europe, such a requirement could involve a regrouping of the tournament in "ten or eleven countries" rather than twelve, according to the boss of the UEFA.

The European body has given each city until April 7 to "submit their scenario", and intends to decide "at the latest" during its executive committee on April 19, on the eve of its annual congress scheduled in Montreux.

Already complicated from a logistical point of view, this pan-European Euro has been raising doubts for months due to varying travel restrictions from one country to another, leaving delegations and supporters in the dark.

But this format "is also a chance", because "if we can no longer do anything in a country, there are eleven others in which preparations are already underway", argued at the beginning of March the doctor Daniel Koch, former "Mr. . Covid "from Switzerland who became UEFA's health advisor to AFP.

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