European Football:

UEFA Champions League Resumes on 7 August

The 2019/20 UEFA Champions League quarter-finals, semi-finals and final will be played as a straight knockout tournament in Lisbon, Portugal in August. All these ties will be single-leg fixtures. The games will be split between Benfica's Estádio do Sport Lisboa e Benfica (which will host the final) and Sporting CP's Estádio José Alvalade.

                A decision is pending on whether the remaining round of 16 second legs will take place at the home team's stadium or in Portugal. The Estádio do Dragão in Porto and the Estádio D. Afonso Henriques in Guimarães will host the four outstanding second legs if required.

                The 2019/20 UEFA Champions League has been on hold since Wednesday 11 March due to the COVID-19 outbreak. The revised schedule to conclude this season's competition was confirmed following Wednesday's UEFA Executive Committee meeting.

2019/20 UEFA Champions League schedule

7-8 August: Round of 16 second legs (venues to be confirmed)

12-15 August: Quarter-finals (Lisbon)

18-19 August: Semi-finals (Lisbon)

23 August: Final (Estádio do Sport Lisboa e Benfica, Lisbon)

                All fixtures will kick off at 21:00 CET. The quarter-final and semi-final draws will take place in Nyon on 10 July; the exact match schedule will then follow.

Upcoming UEFA Champions League finals

                The 2019/20 final was due to be held at the Atatürk Olympic Stadium in Istanbul which will now instead stage the 2020/21 showpiece. The three subsequent final venues have also agreed to host a year later than originally planned.

2020: Estádio do Sport Lisboa e Benfica, Lisbon, Portugal

2021: Atatürk Olympic Stadium, Istanbul, Turkey

2022: Saint Petersburg Stadium, Saint Petersburg, Russia

2023: Football Arena Munich, Munich, Germany

2024: Wembley Stadium, London, England

UEFA medical protocol and matches behind closed doors

                The key principles of the UEFA medical protocol were also approved on Wednesday, and detailed guidelines will now be finalised over the next few weeks to ensure that a thorough sanitary plan be put in place to protect the health of all participants to UEFA matches when the competitions resume.

                UEFA will be regularly assessing the situation across the continent and will liaise with local authorities to see when spectators could gradually return.

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 the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa 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.

Next season

                The access list for the 2020/21 UEFA Champions League has not been affected by the new calendar.

                The deadline for national associations to enter teams to the competitions will be 3 August for the UEFA Champions League.

                The UEFA Executive Committee also approved a revised calendar for the 2020/21 UEFA Champions League.

State of play

                Half of the 2019/20 UEFA Champions League round of 16 ties have already concluded, with Paris, Atlético, Leipzig and Atalanta through to the quarter-finals. The following round of 16 second legs are yet to be played:

Juventus vs Lyon (0-1)

Manchester City vs Real Madrid (2-1)

Bayern vs Chelsea (3-0)

Barcelona vs Napoli (1-1)