The World Health Organisation (WHO) has reportedly recommended the suspension of all international football competitions until the end of 2021 to control the spread of COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus.

The English Premier League is currently on hold but clubs are committed to resuming and finishing the season once it is safe to do so.

The recommendation by WHO to suspend football until 2021 isn’t likely to include the Premier League as that is classed as domestic competition.

However, UEFA competitions, that is, the Champions League, Europa League and next summer’s European Championships will all be affected.

This development comes just hours after UEFA released a statement on plans to resume the 2019/20 season.

The statement read:
UEFA today met its 55 member associations via video conference and presented an update of the options being looked into by the two working groups that were created mid-March.

A variety of calendar options were presented covering both national team and club competition matches.

The funding of National Associations through UEFA’s HatTrick programme was also discussed with UEFA reiterating its commitment to meeting the payments to member associations as planned.

There was a strong recommendation given to finish domestic top division and cup competitions, but some special cases will be heard once guidelines concerning participation to European competitions – in case of a cancelled league – have been developed.

Any decisions on the above topics would be announced after the UEFA Executive Committee on Thursday.- Liverpool Echo