The ISF and FMF have taken the decision to postpone the Intercontinental Cup until April 2021.
The decision was made, based on the recommendations of the ISF’s Medical Director, in order to protect the safety of event participants and as a response to the upward trend of coronavirus cases across Europe.
Dr Richard Johnson commented “it would be inappropriate in the current climate to allow the Intercontinental Cup to proceed, as the convening of teams, even with safety measures in place, could contribute to the spread of the virus to a number of different countries. Postponing the event is the most sensible option and gives us time to implement more extensive safety measures or for the threat of the pandemic to ease.”
ISF representative, Hannah Wallis, said: “the feedback we collected from many teams was that they were apprehensive about travelling abroad whilst the pandemic is still in force, and our Medical Advisors were unanimous in their recommendations to delay the event. We are hopeful that, by rescheduling the event until next year, ISF will be able to offer an enhanced event experience to the teams, once the restrictions on travel and social distancing are eased.”
The Intercontinental Cup will feature a minimum of 16 teams both from Europe and further afield at a brand new stadium in the country’s capital Chisinau – it was recently used for a beach soccer tournament (pictured)
Teams who had already confirmed their participation in the event will have their team slot automatically transferred to the new tournament dates and a member of the ISF team will be in touch with these countries via email to confirm the new dates.