The Italian Football Federation has called for the postponement of the 2020 UEFA European Championship to give Italian teams time to complete the Serie A season, which has been suspended due to the coronavirus pandemic. Italian Federation president Gabriele Gravina says they will make the request official on Tuesday at an UEFA emergency meeting. Serie A was suspended last week as Italy is the European country most affected by the virus. Since then several other sports events got postponed or even canceled.
"We will propose that UEFA postpone the European Championship," Gravina said. "We will try to get to the end of this Serie A championship because it is fairer and more correct after the many investments and sacrifices of our clubs." Euro 2020 is scheduled to take place from 12 June to 12 July at venues across Europe. The Italian Football Federation had previously revealed that the current Serie A season might never be completed, leaving the 2019-2020 season without a champion.
The players at Italian clubs are not training at the moment as the whole nation is on lockdown. President Gravina says he hopes the league season could finish by June 30, a month later than scheduled, but that would not allow Italy to play at the European Championship. Italy head coach Roberto Mancini said he is not thinking about football at the moment, with 368 people killed by the coronavirus in Italy on Sunday.
"I don't know how it will end," Mancini said. "But there are more important things than Euro 2020, without a doubt. If they postpone the tournament, we can win even in a year. The important thing is the health of everyone and that we can all return to the stadium and enjoy ourselves. Seeing people die in these last few days is hurting us too much."
Italy are 10/1 at NetBet to win the European Championship.
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Comments (1)
sharpe
03/29/20, 02:03:55 PM
Yeah, now when we know the EURO has been postponed till the next year that looked like quite a logical decision really. I believe not only the Italian FF but most...
Yeah, now when we know the EURO has been postponed till the next year that looked like quite a logical decision really. I believe not only the Italian FF but most of the European top FA's have been interested in that and hopefully this will allow all the leagues across Europe to complete their seasons even if that mean the next one would start with delay.
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