UEFA asks Euro 2020 host cities to assess potential capacities by April 7

The 12 hosts will be asked to effectively make a minimum guarantee by that date and tournament organiser UEFA anticipates the cities will wait until the last moment to commit themselves to a position.

They will be asked to consider the most realistic of four scenarios, ranging from a 100 per cent capacity venue to playing behind closed doors.

While in England a ‘road map’ has been set out for the return of fans – albeit based on a series of tests being met at each step – there is less certainty in Scotland.

UEFA is understood not to be anticipating that a majority of cities will say their matches have to be played behind closed doors on April 7, and nothing has been decided in advance that any city which cannot commit to admitting any fans will automatically have hosting rights withdrawn.

But if 10 or 11 cities still remain in the running, there is a possibility of matches being taken away from venues unable to admit fans and being split amongst the rest.

It is understood there has been no offer for England to host the whole tournament via any channel, and nor has UEFA asked any country to be on standby to act as a single host.

Reports earlier this week suggested Boris Johnson has offered to stage the whole of the delayed competition but Sheffield was not on the list of cities where matches could potentially be played.

There are concerns within the European governing body of the dangers of committing to a single host, should that country suddenly have a spike in Covid-19 cases.

UEFA has an executive committee scheduled for April 19, where it is possible decisions on whether to withdraw hosting rights from one or more cities could be taken.

It has also asked hosts to provide an updated assessment of capacity limits on April 28, which should at least be equal to, or improve upon, what was guaranteed on April 7.

What it does not want is for a host city to scale back on a commitment made on April 7.