UEFA decision on Champions League expected by June 18

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Bengaluru, June 11: The European football's governing body (UEFA) is expected to take a decision on the fate of this season's Champions League and Europa League competitions after its two-day Executive Committee meeting ends on June 18.

Both the premier UEFA competitions have been put on hold since March because of the global outbreak of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

The UEFA said in a statement that its executive committee would meet in a video conference on June 17 where the agenda would include "round of 16 onwards and related determinations" for both competitions.

The Champions League final was originally scheduled to be played in Istanbul and the Europa League showpiece in Gdansk, Poland, however last month UEFA said "a variety of options" were being looked at for completing the two competitions.

These could include playing the remaining stages of each competition in a single venue and reducing the quarterfinal and semifinal ties to one leg instead of two.

The second legs of four Champions League last-16 ties still need to be played, while Atletico Madrid, Paris Saint-Germain, Atalanta and RB Leipzig have already booked their places in the last eight.

In the Europa League, two round of 16 first leg ties still have to be played plus all the second legs.

The mayor of Madrid had said that the Spanish capital was in talks about hosting the Champions League final if it was moved from Istanbul.

The meeting will also discuss the planned schedule and venues for the Euro 2020 tournament, which has been postponed until 2021, and the dates for the play-off ties which were due to be played in March.

The 24-team competition will be held across 12 cities across the continent.

UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin is scheduled address an online press conference (which is to be streamed live on uefa.com), after the first day of the UEFA Executive Committee on June 17.

Though no official press conference has been scheduled on the second day of the meeting, the UEFA is expected to communicate all the major decisions through an official media release.

(With inputs from Agencies)