Football
Jeff Carlisle, U.S. soccer correspondent 4y

CONCACAF postpones Nations League semifinals, final

CONCACAF has postponed this summer's Nations League semifinals and final after a FIFA working group tracking the impact of the coronavirus pandemic recommended that all men's and women's international matches scheduled for the June, 2020 window be suspended.

The CONCACAF Nations League matches were scheduled to be played in Houston, Texas on June 4, with the third-place match and final set to take place three days later in Dallas. The U.S. and Honduras comprised one semifinal with the other to be contested by Mexico and Costa Rica.

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"Given the ongoing public health situation, and following consultation with FIFA regarding the international football calendar, we have made the decision to suspend the CONCACAF Nations League Finals, which was scheduled for June 4th-7th 2020 in the Houston and Dallas areas," CONCACAF said in a statement.

"The event, which includes the Costa Rica, Honduras, Mexico and USA men's national teams, will be rescheduled to take place at a later date in venues to be determined. This will be confirmed following further discussions with FIFA regarding the remaining international windows in the football calendar, and will obviously be subject to public health authorities deeming it safe for professional sports events to resume.

"Additionally, following the same considerations and discussions with FIFA, we have made the decision to suspend the Road to Gold Cup qualification matches scheduled in the June international window and the Flow Caribbean Club Championship scheduled for May. We will discuss with stakeholders format and scheduling options for these matches and communicate our plans in due course."

The FIFA-Confederations working group, which was recently established by the Bureau of the FIFA Council to address the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, had announced its advice to postpone all June internationals earlier on Friday. The committee includes the FIFA administration and secretary generals and top executives from all confederations.

Among the recommendations by the group were organizing "bilateral discussions with confederations concerning 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifiers in order to finalise a revised match schedule pending health and safety developments."

With respect to the women's game, the working group also said it will work "to include the new dates of the Women's Olympic football tournament in the women's international match calendar," as well as to create "a sub-working group on the women's international match calendar to consider potential changes to the calendar and dates of postponed FIFA final tournaments."

The FIFA-Confederations working group also recommended the postponement of the FIFA Under-20 Women's World Cup which was scheduled to take place in Panama and Costa Rica starting in August, as well as the FIFA Under-17 Women's World Cup, set to be hosted by India in November.

The recommendation comes two days after UEFA announced the postponement of the Euro 2020 qualifying playoffs and international friendlies planned for June.

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