https://www.chelseafc.com/en/news/2021/02/17/
2020-21-uefa-youth-league-cancelled
2020/21 UEFA Youth League cancelled
17 Feb 2021
This season's European youth competition has been cancelled, UEFA have
announced...
https://i.imgur.com/rYoErRl.jpg
The decision was confirmed in a statement from the governing body this
afternoon (Wednesday) and means Andy Myers' team, who were scheduled to
welcome RB Salzburg to Cobham in March, will be without European football
this season.
The statement from UEFA reads:
'Since the decision of the UEFA Executive Committee to play the UEFA Youth
League 2020/21 as a straight knock-out competition as of March 2021, the
Covid-19 pandemic and the related measured imposed by health authorities
around Europe have continued to evolve. Following the UYL R64 draw in
January 2021, UEFA has been in particular monitoring the travel
restrictions affecting the participating clubs in their respective matches
very closely.
'Unfortunately, the situation is not yet evolving positively across Europe
and the attitude of the governments towards travel restrictions has become
more inflexible as we are experiencing also in the UEFA Champions League
and Europa League. Moreover, we have increasingly received over the past
few days concerns raised by several of this season's participating clubs
regarding their ability to travel or to stage matches.
'We strongly believe that the health and safety of people must be given
priority, and, to our regret, we have to conclude that the conditions to
restart the UEFA Youth League are not met in the current circumstances. As
a rescheduling and reformatting has already been made, there would be no
possibilities to further postpone the start of the competition during this
season. Consequently, the UEFA Executive Committee took the decision to
cancel the 2020/21 UEFA Youth League.
'While we know that many of you may be disappointed, we hope you can
understand this difficult decision. We are fully aware of the importance
of this competition for the development of your players and academies and
the significance for the overall growth and development of the game.
'We thank you very much for your efforts and collaboration in the past
weeks and wish you all the best for your youth domestic championships. We
look forward to seeing your club in the coming future at the UEFA Youth
League.'