Women’s European Championship: Tournament to be moved back a year
The Women’s European Championship – set to be held in England in 2021 – will be moved to the summer of 2022.
The tournament was expected to be shifted after the men’s European Championship and the Tokyo Olympics were both postponed until 2021 because of the global coronavirus pandemic.
Three European teams – England, the Netherlands and Sweden – have already qualified for the Olympics.
Moving the Euros to 2022 will avoid two women’s tournaments in the same summer.
Qualification for the tournament is still ongoing. Scotland are second in Group E, Wales are second in Group C, which also contains Northern Ireland in fourth place, and Republic of Ireland are top of Group I.
England women’s manager Phil Neville was set to lead what will be a Great British Olympics squad in Tokyo, with the team supplemented by players from the other Home Nations.
However, his contract, which would have covered the Olympics and Euros had they taken place as scheduled, will now run out before next year’s events take place.
The Football Association is yet to say whether Neville will extend his contract beyond next summer.
European football’s governing body Uefa announced a series of decisions about its competitions on Wednesday following a meeting of its 55 member associations, but it is yet to confirm that Euro 2021 will become Euro 2022.
The Danish FA did, however, say on its website that the postponement had been announced during the video conference.
There are still decisions to be made about when the tournament will take place, largely because of the Commonwealth Games, which are set to take place in Birmingham from 27 July to 7 August.
