Soccer

Euro playoffs will go ahead as long as teams have 13 fit players

Contingencies also in place to refix games right up until start of tournament

Thu Sep 24 2020 - 17:17

The upcoming Euro 2020 playoffs that include the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland and Scotland will go ahead as long as a team has 13 players available, including one goalkeeper.

Uefa have made contingency plans in the event that any of the games have to be postponed, including playing the games as late as next June. The tournament is due to get underway on June 11th of next year after its postponement due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Stephen Kenny’s Republic of Ireland side are set to face Slovakia away on Thursday, October 8th, while Northern Ireland are away to Bosnia-Herzegovina and Scotland face Israel at Hampden Park.

European football’s governing body announced the adoption of ‘special measures’ on Thursday. It said that in the event of players being ordered to be quarantined or to self-isolate, matches would go ahead as planned provided there were at least 13 players available, including at least one goalkeeper.

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However, if that was not possible, a Uefa document stated “the match will be rescheduled at a date to be fixed by the Uefa administration, including May-June 2021 preceding the start of the Uefa Euro 2020 final tournament”.

It added that the Uefa administration would retain the power to switch the match to a neutral venue if necessary, with the designated home team responsible for the staging costs.

Stephen Kenny