“We still have to wait a couple of weeks”





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According to Marco Casagrande, Secretary General of the Finnish Football Association, Finland will play its home game at the renovated Olympic Stadium in Helsinki, if at all possible. LEHTIKUVA / Markku Ulander

Public access to the Football League’s League of Nations matches remained open at Thursday’s meeting of the European Football Association’s Uefa. Owls will host Wales on September 3, Bulgaria on October 11 and Ireland on October 14, in addition to which Finland will meet the same countries as guests during the autumn.

– We still have to wait a couple of weeks. The situation is changing all the time. The big thing is whether to play in the September international match window for the spectators or not. In a couple of weeks, we will sit down again and look at the travel restrictions in different countries, the General Secretary of the Football Association Marco Casagrande said.

Uefa will do its utmost to make the League of Nations play, even if the corona infection situation in Europe deteriorates. In addition to an extensive corona safety protocol, Uefa is prepared to transfer matches to neutral fields.

“Uefa has reserved Poland, Greece, Cyprus and Hungary as hubs (hubs) that are used as neutral fields if you can’t play elsewhere,” Casagrande said.

According to Casagrande, Finland will play its home game at the renovated Olympic Stadium in Helsinki, if at all possible. It is unclear whether the matches will be played in front of spectators or in empty stands.

According to Casagrande, Uefa is preparing to postpone the national matches for women and youth scheduled for the fall to next year.

– The men’s A national matches are resourced in such a way that they can be secured even if the corona situation worsens.

The qualifiers for the Champions League and the Europa League are played in one piece. From Finland, KuPS and Inter, Honka and Ilves are aiming for the group stage of the Champions League and the Europa League.

– Uefa takes into account travel restrictions and strives to organize lottery baskets so that games are possible. The matches are played in one piece and without spectators. The reason for the monotony is a tight schedule. Closed stands are played for safety and equity reasons when the home team is drawn, Casagrande said.