UEFA changes format, delays Women’s Champions League, Futsal Champions League

The UEFA Executive Committee decided to postpone and amend the format of a few competitions due to the current COVID-19 situation across Europe, in order to further mitigate risks by granting UEFA, clubs and national associations more time to adapt to the evolving situation and thoroughly prepare matches, travels as well as the implementation of the UEFA Return to Play Protocol.

The decisions taken by the UEFA Executive Committee are:

2020/21 UEFA Women’s Champions League

The Preliminary Round mini-tournaments will be replaced by two single-leg knock-out rounds with 40 teams in the First Qualifying Round on 3/4 November and 20 teams in the Second Qualifying Round on 18/19 November.

The Round of 32 is postponed to 8/9 and 15/16 December while the remainder of the competition will be played as originally scheduled.

Malta will be represented by Birkirkara in the Women’s Champions League.

2020/21 UEFA Futsal Champions League

The Preliminary Round, Main Round and Elite Round (all originally planned with mini-tournaments) will be replaced by single-leg knock-out rounds, with the Preliminary Round in November, the Round of 32 in January and the Round of 16 in February.

The Final Eight (instead of Final Four) will take place in April or May.

Representing Malta in the UEFA Futsal Champions League will be Luxol.

2019/20 UEFA Under-19 Championship

The Elite round is postponed to November 2020 (instead of October 2020) and the Final Eight tournament will be played in Northern Ireland in March 2021.

The format of the Final Eight tournament has been amended and will now consist of a straight knock-out phase with quarter-finals, semi-finals and the final (and play-off matches to qualify a fifth UEFA team to the FIFA U20 World Cup 2021).