UEFA’s Executive Committee has approved guidelines on eligibility for its competitions in 2020-21, including the Women’s Champions League.
UEFA states that the Guidelines reflect the principle that admission to UEFA club competitions is always based on sporting merit.
While urging National Associations and Leagues to explore all possible options to play all top domestic competitions giving access to UEFA club competitions to their natural conclusion, UEFA stresses that the health of players, spectators and all those involved in football as well as the public at large must remain the primary concern at this time.
The ideal scenario, should the pandemic situation permit it, is to have the currently suspended domestic competitions completed enabling football clubs to qualify for UEFA club competitions on sporting merit in their original format. Should this outcome not be possible, in particular due to calendar issues, it would be preferable that suspended domestic competitions would restart with a different format in a manner which would still facilitate clubs to qualify on sporting merit.
The Calendar Working Group is exploring two scenarios, one seeking to run UEFA competitions in parallel with those of national associations, the other to complete domestic matches before re-starting UEFA matches in August.
The newly-established Medical sub group, chaired by Professor Tim Meyer, is examining the health issues surrounding a return to football and working to produce a set of guidelines which will align with the best health protocols available.
If domestic competitions are prematurely terminated in the following cases;
• existence of an official order prohibiting sports events so that the domestic competitions cannot be completed before a date that would make it possible to complete the current season in good time before the next season to start.
• insurmountable economic problems which make finishing the season impossible because it would put at risk the long-term financial stability of the domestic competition and/or clubs.
UEFA would require the National Association concerned to select clubs for the UEFA club competitions 2020/21 based on sporting merit in the 2019/20 domestic competitions. However, UEFA reserves the right to refuse or evaluate the admission to any club that could not be considered as having been qualified on sporting merit.
National Associations and/or Leagues should be in a position to communicate to UEFA by 25 May 2020 the planned restart of their domestic competitions, including the relevant competition format.
