Aberdeen Expected To Start UEFA Europa League Qualifying in August

UEFA have today announced details for the completion of the UEFA Champions and Europa Leagues for the 2019/20 season and when these competions will commence for the 2020/21 season.

Aberdeen will be expected to start the new UEFA Europa League Qualifying campaign on the 27 August 2020, in the first quallifying round alongside Motherwell.

The qualifying rounds of the two competitions will be played in single legs (instead of home and away), with the only exception of the UEFA Champions League Play-offs which will remain over two legs.

The draw will determine which club will play the single leg in their stadium.

National associations have until 3 August 2020 to enter teams to the competitions.  The SFA will likely have to give Rangers the placing into Qualifying Round 2, with Aberdeen and Motherwell entering Qualifying Round 1.

The new calendar of the qualifying phase and group stages for the UEFA Europa League is:

• Preliminary round – 20 August 2020
• First qualifying round – 27 August 2020
• Second qualifying round – 17 September 2020
• Third qualifying round – 24 September 2020
• Play-offs – 1 October 2020
• Group stages – 22 and 29 October, 5 and 26 November and 3 and 10 December 2020

There are no changes to the dates of the subsequent rounds of the competition.

The calendar for the UEFA Champions League next season will be:

• Prelimiary round – 8 and 11 August 2020
• First qualifying round – 18 and 19 August 2020
• Second qualifying round – 25 and 26 August 2020
• Third qualifying round – 15 and 16 September 2020
• Play-offs – 22 and 23 and 29 and 30 September 2020
• Group stages – 20 and 21 and 27 and 28 October, 3 and 4 and 24 and 25 November, and 1 and 2 and 8 and 9 December 2020

UEFA Champions League Play-offs will remian over two legs.

UEFA Champions League 2019/20

Quarter-finals, semi-finals and the final will be played as a final eight straight knock-out tournament at the Estádio do Sport Lisboa e Benfica and the Estádio José Alvalade in Lisbon between 12 and 23 August 2020.

The remaining Round of 16 second-leg matches will be played on the 7/8 August, pending a decision on whether they will take place at the home team’s stadiums or in Portugal.

The Estádio do Dragão in Porto and the Estádio Dom Afonso Henriques in Guimarães will be added to Lisbon venues for the Round of 16, if necessary.

Quarter-finals will take place on 12/13/14/15 August, semi-finals on 18/19 August and the final at the Estádio do Sport Lisboa e Benfica on 23 August.

All remaining matches of the 2019/20 UEFA Champions League will kick-off at 21:00CET.

The draws for the 2019/20 UEFA Champions League quarter-finals and semi-finals will take place on 10 July 2020 at UEFA’s headquarters in Nyon and the exact match schedule will be communicated following such draw.

All quarter-final and semi-final matches will go to extra-time and penalty kicks in case of a draw at the end of the regular playing time. The same regulatory change will likewise apply to matches in the other competitions for which the same decision has been taken.

Istanbul, which was originally appointed to stage the 2020 final will now host the 2021 UEFA Champions League Final, whereas the venues for subsequent finals have all agreed to host these a year later than originally planned, with St-Petersburg in 2022, Munich in 2023 and London (Wembley) in 2024.

The remainder of the 2019/20 season in both competitions will finish as follows:

UEFA Europa League 2019/20

Quarter-finals, semi-finals and the final will be played as a final eight straight knock-out tournament in Cologne, Duisburg, Düsseldorf and Gelsenkirchen between 10 and 21 August.

The Round of 16 matches will be played on 05/06 August with kick-off times of 18.55CET and 21.00CET. A decision will be made in due course on whether the Round of 16 matches for which the first leg has already been played will be staged at the home team’s venue or in Germany.

The matches FC Internazionale Milano v Getafe CF and Sevilla FC v AS Roma, whose first leg was also postponed, will be played as a single leg at a venue to be confirmed.

All subsequent matches in the competition will be played as a final eight tournament, with quarter-finals on 10/11 August, semi-finals on 16/17 August and the final in Cologne on 21 August, all kicking-off at 21:00CET.

The draws for the 2019/20 UEFA Europa League quarter-finals and semi-finals will take place on 10 July 2020 at UEFA’s headquarters in Nyon and the exact match schedule will be communicated following such draw.

Gdańsk, which was originally appointed to stage the 2020 final will now host the 2021 UEFA Europa League Final, whereas the venues for subsequent finals have all agreed to host these a year later than originally planned, with Sevilla in 2022 and Budapest in 2023.

UEFA Women’s Champions League 2019/20

All remaining matches in the competition will be playedas a final eight straight knock-out tournament at the San Mamés Stadium in Bilbao and the Anoeta Stadium in San Sebastián, with quarter-finals on 21 (18:00CET) and 22 August (20.00CET), semi-finals on 25/26 August at 20.00CET and the final taking place in San Sebastián on 30 August at 20.00CET.

A draw will also take place at UEFA in Nyon on 26 June to determine the order of matches and the final match schedule will be communicated following such draw.

The UEFA Women’s Champions League finals of the coming years will take place in Gothenburg (2021), Turin (2022) and Eindhoven (2023) as originally planned.

UEFA Youth League 2019/20

The remaining Round of 16 match(es) (pending the outcome of disciplinary proceedings on FC Internazionale Milano v Stade Rennais FC) will be played on 16 August in Nyon, and a final eight tournament will be staged at the Colovray stadium in Nyon between 18 and 25 August 2020.

Quarter-finals will take place on 18/19 August, semi-finals on 22 August and the final on 25 August.

UEFA Super Cup 2020

The 2020 UEFA Super Cup which was originally due to be hosted by Porto, will now be played at the Puskás Aréna in Budapest on 24 September 2020 at 21.00CET.

The following editions of the UEFA Super Cup will take place as originally scheduled in Belfast (2021), Helsinki (2022) and Kazan (2023).

Key amendments to the 2019/20 club competitions’ regulations

Teams will be allowed to register three new players on their List A for the remainder of the 2019/20 season, provided such players were already registered and eligible for the club since the last registration deadline (3 February 2020 for UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League; 18 March 2020 for the UEFA Women’s Champions League). List A will still only be able to contain a maximum of 25 players. It will not be possible for clubs to register newly-transferred players.

Five substitutions will be allowed in all the remaining matches in season 2019/20, in accordance with the temporary change to the Laws of the Game, whereas the number of substitutions for season 2020/21 will remain at three.