Scotland's Euro 2020 play-off postponed indefinitely

Scotland’s Euro 2020 play-off against Israel will not take place in June after UEFA cancelled all games for the foreseeable future.

European football’s governing body held a conference call with all 53 national associations on Wednesday to discuss the impact of the coronavirus and the shutdown of football across the continent.

The decision was taken to postpone all currently scheduled matches, which included the play-offs and Women’s Euro 2021 qualifiers. Other continental competition, including the Champions League and Europa League, remain suspended until further notice.

Scotland were due to play Israel last month in their Euro 2020 play-off with the winner taking on Norway or Serbia for a place in the finals.

The tournament has already been moved to next summer and the play-off matches were shifted to June but a new date will now need to be found when football resumes.

UEFA also postponed deadlines for next year’s club competitions with most national leagues still to be concluded. Entrants for the Europa League and Champions League will now have more time to submit their financial records and other paperwork for club licensing.

A statement on the UEFA website read: ” Following today’s video conference meeting with the general secretaries of all 55 UEFA member associations and recommendations made by the working groups created on 17 March, the UEFA Executive Committee took a series of decisions, as follows:

All national team matches for men and women due to be played in June 2020 are postponed until further notice. This includes the play-off matches for UEFA EURO 2020 and qualifying matches for UEFA Women’s EURO 2021.

All other UEFA competition matches, including the centralised international friendly matches, remain postponed until further notice.

Youth national team competitions:

(i) the UEFA European Under-17 Championship final tournament scheduled for May 2020 is cancelled;

(ii) the UEFA European Women’s Under-19 Championship final tournament scheduled for July 2020 is cancelled;

(iii) the UEFA European Women’s Under-17 Championship final tournament scheduled for May 2020 is postponed until further notice (as it is a qualifying competition for the FIFA U‑17 Women’s World Cup);

(iv) the UEFA European Under-19 Championship final tournament scheduled for July 2020 is postponed until further notice (as it is a qualifying competition for the FIFA U-20 World Cup).

The UEFA Futsal Champions League finals scheduled for April 2020 are postponed until further notice.
The deadlines related to all 2020/21 UEFA club competitions are postponed until further notice, in particular as regards the admission process and the registration of players. UEFA will set new deadlines in due course.

On club licensing and financial fair play matters:

The Executive Committee reiterated its full commitment to club licensing and financial fair play and agreed that the current exceptional circumstances necessitate some specific interventions to facilitate the work of member associations and clubs.

It supports the proposal to give member associations more time to complete the club licensing process, until the admission process for next season’s UEFA club competitions has been redefined.

As a result of the increasing uncertainty generated by the ongoing extraordinary events, the Executive Committee also decided to suspend the club licensing provisions that relate to the preparation and assessment of clubs’ future financial information. This decision applies exclusively for participation in the 2020/21 UEFA club competitions.