The UEFA Executive Committee made known on Wednesday that it will hold both draws for the 2020/21 Champions League and the Europa League group stages, alongside the award ceremony for the 2019/20 top players, at the Stavris Niarchos Foundation in Athens.

The European Federation chose Greece to hold events in October due to the low rates of COVID-19 infections and success in which the country handled the global pandemic.

This decision will impact the country’s image abroad and could even have a positive overflow on tourism, considering one of the world’s most high-level football committees has chosen them as a safe space to hold one of their most important annual events. UEFA president Aleksander Čeferin’s discussion with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis played a role in this decision, with the European chairman receiving all necessary safety assurances.

The vote by the Executive Committee was unanimous, with the government representative Stelios Petsas pointing out that this is a “vote of confidence” towards Greece.

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Meanwhile, UEFA also announced the format for this season’s Champions and Europa League competitions, which will be held in a Final-8 single round type of tournament.

The Champions League games will be held in Portugal, while the Europa League will take place in Germany. A decision about allowing crowds into the stadiums has not yet been reached, with Mr Čeferin pointing out that further announcements regarding this matter will be made at a later time.

OLYMPIACOS TO FACE WOLVES IN EARLY AUGUST

Among the announcements made by UEFA was the one regarding the games of the round of 16 of the Champions and Europa Leagues. The Champions League games will resume on 7-8 August, while the Europa will be played two days earlier. In the latter competition there is also Greek representation, with Olympiacos playing their return game against the Wolverhampton Wanderers (first game at the Karaiskakis Stadium ended in a 1-1 draw).

The news was welcomed with a sigh of relief by the Greek club’s training staff, considering this date will not be too far off from their last potential game (Greek Cup Final) and will allow players to remain in good form while also sorting out any possible injury issues that come up.

In a further boost for the red-and-whites, the European Federation has announced that it will allow teams to make up to three changes to their registered squads, giving them the opportunity to switch out the injured Hilal Soudani and Lazaros Christodoulopoulos for the more prepared Cafu and Ahmed Hassan.