UEFA reveals plan to resume Champions League

UEFA has announced its plans to restart the current Champions League season. The competition was halted in March amidst the novel coronavirus pandemic. European football's governing body has reportedly informed the participating clubs about its plans to resume the championship in August.

The organisation has begun designing a potential schedule for the remainder of the 2019-20 campaign. The European competition was suspended halfway through the Round-of-16. Before the tournament was suspended, defending champions Liverpool got eliminated after suffering a defeat against Atletico Madrid at Anfield.

In the final match day that was completed on March 12, Paris Saint-Germain won against Borussia Dortmund behind closed doors at the Parc des Princes.

As of now, four last-16 second-leg encounters are still remaining. They are Bayern Munich vs Chelsea, Manchester City vs Real Madrid, Juventus vs Lyon, and Barcelona vs Napoli.

On Wednesday, UEFA and the bosses of these clubs met via video conference and all of them expressed their desire to complete this year's Champions League.

The governing body said that the remaining games of the competition might be played starting the weekend of August 8. As Mirror reports, the match between Juventus and Lyon is provisionally scheduled for that date.

Accordingly, the quarter-final games would be organised during the following midweek. RB Leipzig, Atalanta, PSG, and Atletico have already qualified for the last eight.

The Champions League final is originally scheduled to be played in Istanbul. Turkish Football Federation President Nihat Ozdemir is confident that they could host the event in Istanbul according to what was previously planned.

Ozdemir said, "God willing, we will complete our own leagues at the end of July. We will hand over our cups on the pitch and then we will cap the season off by hosting the UEFA Champions League final in August."

However, there are still uncertainties regarding the competition's format. France's Ligue 1 was recently cancelled after the country's government extended its ban over public gatherings.

Now, if UEFA wants the clubs to follow the old home-and-away format, then PSG and Lyon would face difficulties to cope with it.

It has been understood that the possibility of conducting single-legged affairs at neutral venues has been discussed in the meeting.

UEFA is now hoping for domestic league seasons across Europe to conclude before July 31.