Yahoo Finance Women's Champions League venues will be moved if Spain's coronavirus spikes continue
Uefa is ready to move the venues for August’s Women’s Champions League should Spain’s new flurry of coronavirus cases mean it is not safe to play the tournament there.
The country insisted on Sunday that the latest outbreak of new coronavirus cases was isolated and under control following the UK’s sudden announcement that people arriving from Spain are required to quarantine for 14 days. An easing of lockdown restrictions in Spain has seen a sharp increase in infections, while France and Germany have also both seen a rise in new cases.
The Women’s Champions League is set to conclude in Spain next month, beginning with the first set of quarter-final matches on August 21. Bilbao and San Sebastián will host the competition until August 30 in an eight-team straight knock-out tournament split between the San Mamés Stadium in Bilbao and the Anoeta Stadium in San Sebastián, with the latter staging the final. The quarter-finalists comprise Glasgow City, Wolfsburg, Atlético Madrid, Barcelona, Arsenal, Paris St Germain, Lyon and Bayern Munich.
Among the decisions made by Uefa’s Executive Committee in relation to the round of 16 matches for the men’s competition include the ability to assign new venues in the event of fresh outbreaks. It is understood that the same principles apply to the women’s tournament.
"Uefa will continue to monitor the situation and reserves the right to reassign any such matches to the venues of the final tournament of the relevant competition should new events occur that would make it impossible to play one or more matches at the original venues,” the organisation’s advice reads.
Google’s coronavirus cases map - which takes data from Wikipedia, government health ministries, the New York Times and elsewhere to display the number of people who were tested and confirmed positive - shows 14,177 confirmed cases in the Basque Country with 1,563 deaths.
According to data from Johns Hopkins University, Spain has more than 272,000 confirmed Covid-19 cases and is one of the European countries worst-affected by the virus. Over 900 new infections were reported on Friday and the last two weeks have seen case numbers triple.
