EURO 2020 postponed for a year. Gives more options for finishing the current season.

EURO 2020 has been postponed until the summer of 2021 for both reasons of public safety “as well as helping allow domestic competitions to be finished”. All scheduled internationals including the EURO Qualifying Playoffs have been put back until at least June. CONMEBOL have also announced the the 2020 Copa America has also been postponed until 2021.

This action was always considered very likely to happen as the peak of the coronavirus pandemic in Europe is expected to be in 10-14 weeks, which would be in the middle of the tournament.

UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin said: “It was important that, as the governing body of European football, UEFA led the process and made the biggest sacrifice.

”Moving EURO 2020 comes at a huge cost for UEFA but we will do our best to ensure that the vital funding for grassroots, women’s football and the development of the game in our 55 countries is not affected. Purpose over profit has been our guiding principle in taking this decision for the good of European football as a whole.

“Football is an uplifting and powerful force in society. The thought of celebrating a pan-European festival of football in empty stadia, with deserted fan zones while the continent sits at home in isolation, is a joyless one and one we could not accept to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the competition.”

He added: “The fine detail will be worked out in the coming weeks but the basic principles have been agreed and that is a major step forward. We have all shown that we are responsible leaders. We have demonstrated solidarity and unity. Purpose over profit. We’ve achieved this today.”

News about the virus itself is something than has been, and will be, covered much more diligently elsewhere. Listen to the experts and take on the medical advice - try and stay safe.

As for how this could affect Leeds United. This should give football a bit more time to finish the season after the expected peak of the pandemic. Which is good news for all Leeds fans, not that anything can be even close to decided yet.

In my opinion, finishing the current season should take precedent over next season - as it is both easier and fairer to have any shortened/altered season be agreed before the start of that season, and therefore next season is a far better option that this season for sorting out a workaround.

Now that UEFA have stated that one of their reasons for the delay is because it is one of their priorities (not as much as health, obviously) is to finish the league season. I now feel it is more likely that British football will finish the season, although I do think it could well end up behind closed doors as we are unlikely to be far enough past the peak of this pandemic to go back to “normal”.

Do you think that the season will finish? What do you think the fairest way to deal with the situation is? Let us know in the comments below or on Twitter @ThruItAllLUFC.