European Championship, Copa America postponed to 2021 because of coronavirus

This year’s European Championship and Copa America have been postponed for one year.

UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin says the spreading coronavirus “makes football and all life in Europe quite impossible.”

UEFA plans to play the tournament next year from June 11 to July 11. The 24-team competition is being hosted in 12 different countries.

South American soccer body CONMEBOL said the Copa America tournament in Colombia and Argentina will be played the same dates as the postponed European Championship.

“It is an extraordinary measure for an unexpected situation, and it answers the fundamental need to avoid an exponential development of the virus, which is already present in all countries that are members of the confederation,” CONMEBOL President Alejandro Domínguez said in a statement.

The last Copa America was played in Brazil in 2019 and won by the hosts. This year’s edition was expected to open a new era with the tournament every four years, at the same time as the European Championship.

CONMEBOL had already suspended its club competitions, the Copa Libertadores and the Copa Sudamericana, because of the outbreak.

The postponement clears space to give national leagues and the Champions League and Europa League a chance to finish their seasons by June 30.

European soccer is in a shutdown and it is unclear when games can resume.