Andrej Kramaric (C) celebrates scoring the 4-1 goal from the
penalty spot during the German first division Bundesliga football
match TSG 1899 Hoffenheim v FC Bayern Munich on September 27, 2020
in Mainz, southern Germany. Daniel ROLAND / AFP.
Less than six weeks Bayern Munich won last season’s
delayed final behind closed doors, the draw for the group stage of
the next Champions League takes place on Thursday with the threat
of the coronavirus pandemic again hanging over the
competition.
Bayern were crowned European champions for the sixth time after
beating Paris Saint-Germain beating Paris Saint-Germain at an empty
Estadio da Luz in Lisbon in August. The surreal occasion
represented a triumph of sorts for UEFA.
European football’s governing body succeeded in playing its
flagship competition to a conclusion despite the long shutdown
caused by the health crisis, but the final rounds were not the
same.
“A game like this without supporters is not the football that we
know,” lamented Bayern coach Hansi Flick. “Perhaps they can be back
again in the future.”
Thursday’s draw is part of a ceremony which will also see the
best men’s and women’s player of last season crowned.
UEFA had to ditch plans to stage the event in Athens and instead
moved it to its own headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland, where the
draw will go ahead without guests.
It is further evidence that, after the battle to get last season
finished, things are not about to return to normal in Europe yet,
and virus cases are exploding again.
But this time the football, it seems, will go on.
Both Bayern and PSG will be in the first pot of seeds along with
Liverpool, Real Madrid, Juventus, Porto, Zenit Saint-Petersburg and
Sevilla, the Europa League winners.
There is the prospect of plenty of enticing match-ups, with
Barcelona, Atletico Madrid, Chelsea, Borussia Dortmund and both
Manchester clubs all in the second pot, and Inter Milan, Atalanta,
RB Leipzig and Marseille among the lower seeds.
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But the excitement of the draw will be quickly tempered.
First, there is the realisation that almost all the leading
clubs will make it through to the last 16 anyway, as they always
do, removing much of the jeopardy from the early games.
– Pitfalls ahead –
As the pandemic continues to cast a shadow, it seems hard to
imagine the final going ahead as scheduled in Istanbul next May in
a full stadium.
UEFA experimented with the return of fans when around 15,500
attended last week’s Super Cup between Bayern and Sevilla in
Budapest.
“Health is the number one priority but we want to bring hope,”
said UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin. He added: “Fans and players
are the essential part of football.”
But with rules on large gatherings varying considerably from
country to country, UEFA must decide how to approach the issue of
crowds attending games in the Champions League and Europa League,
the draw for which is on Friday.
UEFA’s current stance is that games will be behind closed doors
“until further notice”.
It has adapted its rules. In the face of travel restrictions, it
will allow matches on neutral territory. If a club suffers a
Covid-19 outbreak, a game can go ahead as long as each team has at
least 13 fit players including one goalkeeper.
The group stage starts on October 20, more than a month later
than usual, and all six rounds of games will be packed into eight
weeks.
However, in the event of more delays, UEFA has set January 28 as
the deadline to complete the group stage.
Pitfalls lie ahead, but the draw offers a brief return to
something like normality.
AFP