UPDATE: Confirmation of Champions League conclusion plus plans for next season ⚽🏆

Checks= Qualified. Cross Outs= Eliminated. Without sign= Yet to qualify

Hello ladies and gentlemen

It's been confirmed. The 2019/20 UEFA Champions League will resume on the 7th of August and will be concluded on the 23rd of the same month. As stated from uefa.com, this is how the timeline is set:

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 (Estadio do Sport Lisboa e Benfica, Lisbon)

[ info courtesy of uefa.com]

As I said yesterday, the competition will be concluded in Portugal and the final will not be played in Istanbul as was desired. There were discussions though, about whether the outstanding round of 16 second leg games would be played at home team's stadiums or in Portugal, something which remains pending. Would've booked myself a hotel room in Portugal 😎😂. 

Another thing confirmed. The competition format will now be straight single leg knockouts from the quarter-finals till the final, which means teams will amp up their game plans for maximum success. Amendments for the competition will be made. This means that, teams will be allowed to add 3 new players to their squads for the remainder of the competition, provided that the players were registered and are eligible to play, since the last registration was done on 3 February 2020, before the round of 16 began. Huhh 😵😂. The maximum number of players that teams are required to have is 25 players. This will not include newly transferred players, since the transfer window just recently began. Hope you understood that. Also, teams can now make 5 substitutions in a game, stated as a new law by FIFA and something we've seen being done in the domestic leagues such as the German Bundesliga, Spanish La Liga and English Premier League.

Plans for the 2020/21 Champions League were also put on the table of discussion, and I for one was eager about this. It'll mean I'm back for a second season on this blog and my coverage will be even better than what I've done now 😉🗞🔎. UEFA have come up with a revised schedule of next season's Champions League which will see the group stages start in October rather than September this year. I'll leave the link for that information here.

And ofcourse, all this action will be undergone behind closed doors as the coronavirus has not vanquished, thus preventing fans in numbers from being present in stadiums. This is honestly new and strange to everybody, and for me, well, I'm adjusting pretty accordingly 😅. 

That's a wrap from me today.

 I'll catch you all on Friday for the Player Profile Series! Enjoy your day and keep safe ⚽🏆👋🏽🙏🏽