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UEFA denies receiving any notice from WHO stating delay in football

WION Web Team
New Delhi, Delhi, IndiaUpdated: Apr 22, 2020, 04:06 PM IST
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A logo is pictured on UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland, April 15, 2016. Photograph:(Reuters)

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WHO has played a major role in helping the Olympic committee in rescheduling the games to 2021. 

UEFA has denied receiving any request from WHO regarding suspending play of football until the end of 2021 as a preventive measure for a second wave of the global coronavirus. 

Earlier an Italian publication suggested that the World Health Organisation (WHO) had sent a notice to UEFA regarding the suspension. According to the publication, UEFA received notice from the WHO during a two-and-a-half-hour Executive Committee meeting last Thursday, which recommended football is not resumed until the start of 2022 to avoid a second wave of COVID-19.

According to the reports, a UEFA spokesperson talked to a British Daily newspaper where he denied any such requests from the WHO. He said that there were no such requests from the WHO to cancel or stall the game of football until late 2021. 

WHO has played a major role in helping the Olympic committee in rescheduling the games to 2021. 

The World Health Organisation has also released a statement: “This is not correct. WHO never recommended that football should no longer be played until the end of 2021.”

The UEFA could also determine current rankings in the league tables across the European leagues to determine who qualifies for UEFA Champions League and who does not. This comes as a major shocker for Arsenal as they were expected to miss out the tournament for yet another year but they currently are placed fourth above Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspurs and Leicester City. 

The UEFA's Executive Committee will meet again on Thursday after calendar proposals were proffered to the 55 member associates on Tuesday through videoconference, and an announcement on the topic is expected to follow as well as the latest on certain domestic leagues across Europe being ended immediately due to government regulations preventing football from restarting.