The Union of European Football Association (UEFA) on Friday admitted its mistake over calling their 16th edition of the continental tournament Euro 2020 which will now be played in the summer of 2021.
After postponing the Euro Championship, which was scheduled to be played in June and July of 2020, due to the deadly outbreak of the novel coronavirus, UEFA still decided to name the tournament Euro 2020.
Taking to its official Twitter timeline of Friday, UEFA wrote, “Although it will provisionally take place from 11 June – 11 July 2021, #EURO2020 will still be known as UEFA EURO 2020.”
This led to an outrage among the fans who were quick to make their voices heard on the social media platform and pointed out the error from the football governing body.
Realising its mistake, UEFA rectified their error on the same day and tweeted, “With apologies for the earlier error, to be clear no decision has yet been made on the name of the rearranged EURO to be held in 2021. The earlier tweet was sent by mistake.”
With apologies for the earlier error, to be clear no decision has yet been made on the name of the rearranged EURO to be held in 2021.
The earlier tweet was sent by mistake.
— UEFA (@UEFA) March 20, 2020
Earlier this week, it was announced that the Euro will be staged in the months of June and July next year after FIFA decided to reschedule the Club World Cup which was due to happen during the time. FIFA also announced that the Copa America, which was scheduled to take place in the summer of 2020, will be played at the same time.
“The FIFA Council unanimously decided to include the new dates of the CONMEBOL Copa América and the UEFA EURO (11 June to 11 July 2021) in the International Match Calendar and to decide at a later stage when to schedule the new FIFA Club World Cup which was due to take place in June/July 2021,” a statement on the official FIFA website read.
The COVID-19 pandemic, which has already killed more than 11,400 people and affected over 2,76,400 people worldwide, had earlier forced the officials to postpone all the ongoing and upcoming events including the Euro 2020.
The matches of the Champions League and Europa League were also cancelled while all the top football leagues in Europe and across the globe have come to a standstill.