March 12 – After telling UEFA they wouldn’t travel, Getafe have now persuaded European football’s governing body to call off tonight’s Europa League tie against Inter Milan as the coronavirus begins to bite into UEFA’s club competitions – something it was hoped could be avoided by playing games behind closed doors.
The region of Lombardy, where Milan is located, is at the epicentre of Europe’s worst coronavirus outbreak which has prompted the Italian government to impose a nationwide lockdown and the match on Thursday at the San Siro was due to be played with no fans in attendance.
Roma also announced that they would not travel to Spain for their Europa League match against Sevilla which UEFA has subsequently also been forced to call off. Roma had been unable to travel for the match as they had not been granted permission to fly to Andalusia.
It remains to be seen what further action UEFA take and it is also unclear what will happen with the second legs. The ongoing health controls and the difficulty in finding any new dates potentially puts at risk the completion of the entire competition.
“Further decisions on the two matches will be communicated in due course,” UEFA said in a statement amid increasing concerns that Euro 2020 in the summer may also be hit.
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