This archive report was first published on 21 May 2020.
On September 14, 2016, UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin was congratulated by UEFA representatives during the 12th Extraordinary UEFA congress in Lagonissi, Greece.
Fast forward to 2020, Ceferin expressed hope to finish the Champions League season by the end of August, in an interview published in a Portuguese newspaper on May 20, 2020.
"Our plan is to complete it by the end of August," Ceferin said, responding to a question about the deadline for concluding the Champions League season, which was interrupted in March by the coronavirus pandemic.
Despite the challenges posed by the pandemic, Ceferin remained optimistic, stating, "I think it will work (...). You never know what can happen but things seem to be calming down," he said.
UEFA has already advanced the date of August 3 as a possible deadline for finishing the national championships, at meetings with its member associations at the end of April.
However, Ceferin clarified that the August 3 date was a recommendation, "a provisional date, not official", in a letter addressed to Jean-Michel Aulas, president of Olympique Lyonnais.
"Football has not changed after the Second World War or the First and will not change because of a virus," Ceferin said in an interview with Record, adding that it was convinced that Euro-2020, postponed by one year, would be played well next year.
