UEFA denies allegations on receiving advice from WHO

UEFA has denied receiving a request from the World Health Organisation to suspend all football until the end of 2021 following reports that the coronavirus pandemic could see the sport in Europe suspended for more than 21 months.

A report emerged in Italian publication La Republicca on Tuesday evening, claiming that Uefa received notice from the WHO during a two-and-a-half-hour Executive Committee meeting last Thursday, which recommended football is not resumed until the start of 2022 in order to avoid a second wave of COVID-19.

That would result in the postponed Euro 2020 tournament needing to be rescheduled once again or face full cancellation, and cause havoc with both the 2019/20 and 2020/21 domestic and European seasons, which would both face cancellation with no opportunity to resume.

The La Repubblica report quotes Brazilian weekly ‘Veja’ as the source of information, with the Sao Paulo magazine claiming that the current talks of resuming the season in the coming months would be impossible due to WHO’s advice.