INTERNATIONAL football is back – and with it, a brand new iteration of the Uefa Nations League.
After a successful first campaign in 2019, the competition gets underway again on September 3 – but the spectre of Covid 19 is always looming large.
International football returns with a bang as Germany take on Spain
With international travel and quarantine rules seemingly changing by the day, Uefa have had to make a contingency plan for if the pandemic affects the schedule.
What happens if Nations League games are called off because of Covid?
There’s plenty of international football on the menu between now and November, with five Matchday’s planned in a packed Uefa schedule.
England begin their challenge against Iceland on September 5, before clashing with Denmark and Belgium in the coming months.
Uefa have put a number of protocols in force as international football restarts, including rules on how games will be decided if a team suffers a coronavirus outbreak.
Firstly, a match is expected to be fulfilled if a team has at least 13 squad members fit and ready to play – including at least one goalkeeper.
Drawing lots would only only happen as a last resort
If this can’t happen, Uefa will try everything within its power to reschedule the tie for a later date.
But with fixture congestion already a huge problem at both domestic and international level, this might not be possible in some cases.
And as a last resort option, lots could be drawn to decide the winner of a given tie.
That will only happen if the game is cancelled due to circumstances outside of both teams control – i.e Covid-19 – and a rescheduled date is not possible.
The last time lots were drawn in an international tournament was way back at Italia 90.
Holland and the Republic of Ireland finished level on points in their World Cup groups, with an identical record including goals scored and conceded.
As such, lots were drawn to determine who would finish second and third, changing their path into the knockout stages.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
