Will Europe have a Club Championship?
March 1, 2021 by Ravi Vasudevan in Livewire with 0 comments
The European Ultimate Federation has announced that they will cancel the summer EUCR tournaments that normally qualify teams for the EUCF.
Per a decision structure created in late 2020, the EUF gave themselves a deadline of March 1st to greenlight the regional tournaments if international travel seemed feasible by July. As COVID cases in Europe remain high and many European countries still have travel restrictions in place, the EUF determined it was not possible to proceed with EUCRs.
The regional qualifying tournaments were to take place in July and August in advance of a fall EUCF. The EUF is now exploring a scenario for holding EUCF as scheduled where national federations are each given bids directly and free to distribute them however they wish. The EUF hopes that the national federations will be able to plan internal qualifying events to distribute those bids.
The following table shows the decision deadlines set by the EUF, along with the requirements necessary to determine what is possible for a major continental club tournament in 2021:
| Scenario | Event Details | Decision Deadline | Requirements by Deadline |
|---|---|---|---|
| B1 | xEUCF Bruges. Sept 30 - Oct. 3 | May 1 | International travel is allowed and restrictions are lifted by September |
| B2 | EUCF Sep/Oct split into three separate divisions | May 1 | International travel is allowed, however some restrictions are still expected |
| C | No EUF organized events | June 1 | Small events are possible between neighbours in September |
If the EUCF takes place, the EUF may host an extended EUCF (xEUCF) containing all three major divisions or split the EUCF into three separate tournaments in the event of limitations on event size. In the scenario of a single large event, the xEUCF will take place September 30th through October 3rd in Bruges, Belgium at the field site used for Tom’s Tourney.1
The next decision deadline is set for May 1st, when the EUF will determine if either of the EUCF scenarios described above are feasible.
Bruges was also slated to host the 2020 EUCF, which was canceled. ↩
