UEFA postpones Champions League, Europa League ‘until further notice’

Nobody knows when the games will return. That’s not something that’s suddenly a newfound proposition. It’s been like this for weeks, and it will likely be like that for many more weeks to come unless we hear something official that will change how sports operate in our new coronavirus-filled world.

We don’t know when we will see Juventus next, which is sad regardless of how they might have looked for the better part of the 2020 calendar year.

But what we do know is that it won’t be in the Champions League anytime soon.

UEFA announced on Wednesday that is has postponed the Champions League and Europe League as well as all other international competitions through the month of June. Considering the fact that we don’t know when games will come back domestically, UEFA completely wiping out any possibility of European competition taking place for another two months is a pretty major sign that this might as well be the end to Juve’s Champions League run even though we have yet to see them play the second leg of their round of 16 tie against Lyon.

The complete statement from UEFA reads as follows:

The Executive Committee reiterated its full commitment to club licensing and Financial Fair Play and agreed that the current exceptional circumstances necessitate some specific interventions to facilitate the work of member associations and clubs.

It supports the proposal to give member associations more time to complete the club licensing process, until the admission process for next season’s UEFA club competitions has been redefined.

As a result of the increasing uncertainty generated by the ongoing extraordinary events, the Executive Committee also decided to suspend the club licensing provisions that relate to the preparation and assessment of clubs’ future financial information. This decision applies exclusively for participation in the 2020/21 UEFA club competitions.

You’ll notice how UEFA just snuck in there a little bit of information about Financial Fair Play and the enforcement of it over the next handful of months. There’s extensively been given some decent amount of wiggle room seeing as club finances and revenue are going to be thrown all out of whack because of the coronavirus pandemic and suspension of games on multiple fronts.

And that conveniently comes after player transfer values are likely to take a big hit this summer (or whenever this next transfer window takes place).

Convenient? Maybe.

Coincidence? Maybe.

How much the coronavirus actually impacts the transfer market remains to be seen. But with no serious Champions League money coming in for the immediate future, Juventus and a lot of other clubs may well have to rethink just how they spend the money they do have at their disposal. And UEFA loosening FFP restrictions could be quite the helpful tool.