Only home fans are expected to be allowed into group matches for this summer’s delayed Euro 2020 tournament and very limited numbers of travelling supporters will be permitted for the latter stages of the competition, it can be revealed.

Uefa is considering the drastic move of refunding all the tickets already sold and starting the process again from scratch once the venues have confirmed how many fans they will be permitted by their national governments.

The move follows a meeting on Wednesday of tournament organisers from the 12 host countries, which include England, Scotland and Ireland, with many of the representatives pushing Uefa to take steps to prevent international travel by supporters because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The strong message from the representatives to Uefa was that it would be much easier to persuade governments to allow supporters into venues if only domestic fans were permitted. Sources in the meeting have told The Times that the Football Association’s plan for Wembley Stadium — which is hosting England’s three group games, a round-of-16 match, both semi-finals and the final — is for the venue to be 30 per cent to 35 per cent full, based on one-metre social distancing.

However, organisers have been told that even a slight relaxation in social distancing requirements could mean that Wembley is up to 50 per cent full — which would allow 45,000 supporters to attend — and that the extra fans could be accommodated with as little as three weeks’ notice.

FA chiefs are understood to have told Uefa they would ideally like to have some fans, perhaps 2,000 or 3,000, for the semi-finals and final, travelling from abroad by maintaining bubbles. They would be flown into London on charter flights, taken straight to the stadium and then back to the airport directly after the match, with minimal contact with the local population.

A decision on all the plans regarding supporters will have to be agreed by the governments and will depend on how the pandemic develops between now and the start of April, and on the impact of the vaccination programmes in the different countries.

More than 1.5 million of the three million tickets for the tournament had already been sold, though many will have been returned to Uefa before this week’s deadline. At almost all the venues, with the exception of Baku in Azerbaijan, where Wales are due to play two group games, the demand for tickets had outstripped supply.

With all the stadiums likely to have their capacities restricted, Uefa will either have to organise a ballot system to decide which tickets would remain valid or refund all tickets and start again — the latter option is viewed as a much simpler task. “Either way, people are going to be angry they have missed out,” said a source.

A few weeks ago there was an expectation that two or three of the 12 hosts would pull out of the tournament and that England and Scotland might be asked to stage extra games, but the likelihood of that has diminished considerably. Indeed, all the venues in this week’s meeting were said to be “bullish” in their determination to put the matches on.

Although there are considerable complications around moving the 24 competing teams, plus officials and Uefa staff, around 12 different countries that may all have different restrictions, the numbers involved are relatively small and can be maintained in bubbles.

That is a far cry from the Tokyo Olympics, for example, where nearly 20,000 athletes and officials would have to be accommodated in the city at some stage during the Games this summer.

There are also some benefits of the 12-country Euro 2020 format when it comes to supporters: nine of the host nations have qualified for the finals, which means that at least some fans of those teams should be able to see their countries play matches, without having to travel.

The choice of Wembley as the venue for the semi-final and final has also paid off for Uefa. For a start, the 17,000 Club Wembley seats provide the best opportunity for socially distanced hospitality and VIP seats in the whole of Europe, an important factor when it comes to revenue.

The stadium also has generously spaced concourses and seating, which again help to maximise the number of fans who can be permitted.

Furthermore, the cosmopolitan nature of London, with its many international communities, means that whichever teams reach the semi-finals and final it is likely that there will be a large number of potential fans already living in the capital.

The Scottish FA has also pointed out to Uefa that the country has a large Croatian community — Croatia are playing two group games at Hampden Park in Glasgow.

The Uefa president, Aleksander Ceferin, last night announced that Dr Daniel Koch, Switzerland’s former head of communicable diseases, who is seen as a key figure in the country’s swift response to the first wave of coronavirus infections last year, is to be the medical adviser for the Euros.

“Dr Koch has vast experience in the field of public health and communicable diseases,” Ceferin said. “His expertise will be invaluable in helping Uefa, host associations and host cities to navigate a path to maximising spectator attendance at Euro 2020 this summer.”

Schedule as planned

Key dates

First match June 11
Group stage June 11-23
Round of 16 June 26-29
Quarter-finals July 2-3
Semi-finals July 6-7
Final July 11, Wembley Stadium

How it works

Top two in each of the six groups qualify for the knockout stage along with the four best-ranked third-placed teams.

Group A (Rome & Baku) Turkey, Italy, Wales, Switzerland
Group B (Copenhagen & St Petersburg) Denmark, Finland, Belgium, Russia
Group C (Bucharest & Amsterdam) Holland, Ukraine, Austria, North Macedonia
Group D (London & Glasgow) England, Croatia, Scotland, Czech Republic
Group E (Dublin & Bilbao) Spain, Sweden, Poland, Slovakia
Group F (Budapest & Munich)Hungary, Portugal, France, Germany.

Martyn Ziegler, Chief Sports Reporter