Gibraltar FA terminates 2019/20 season

The Gibraltar FA has today informed it’s members that it is to terminate the 2019/20 season as from immediate effect following advice from the Gibraltar Government indicating a 20th July deadline was not possible. A decision over whether a club will be crowned champion is yet to be decided with European club competition places to be allocated under UEFA guidelines.
In an announcement made this evening the association has stated “ The Gibraltar FA has today informed its Members that it will be terminating the current 2019-2020 Domestic Season with immediate effect.

This decision has been made after Her Majesty’s Government of Gibraltar confirmed to the Gibraltar FA that it would not be possible for its domestic season to be completed prior to the 20th July 2020, which is UEFA’s deadline for Gibraltar competitions to be concluded.

Under the respective UEFA Club coefficient rankings, the Gibraltar FA currently has 3 allocated UEFA Club Competition Slots as follows :

1 UEFA Champions League slot for the National League Winner;
1 UEFA Europa League slot for the National League Runner up;
1 UEFA Europa League slot for the winner of the Gibtelecom Cup or; if the Cup Winner is already qualified via path 1 or 2 above, for the Club ranked 3rd in the National League.
UEFA has informed its Member Associations that the following principle will apply in the event that a Domestic Cup cannot be completed :

“For entry into the 2020/21 UEL, should a National Association prematurely terminate, for legitimate reasons a domestic cup, and as a consequence, not be able to determine a domestic cup winner on sporting merit – in application by analogy of Article 3.04 of the UEL Regulations – the highest ranking non-qualified domestic championship club qualifies for the 2020/21 UEL at the stage initially reserved for the lowest ranking top domestic championship club representative and, consequently, each representative of the domestic championship then enters the competition at the stage initially reserved for the domestic championship representative ranked immediately above it. The Access List for the 2020/21 UEFA Club Competitions shall be adjusted accordingly.”

As the Gibtelecom Cup cannot be completed, our Domestic Cup (Gibtelecom Cup) UEFA Europa League slot will be allocated to the 3rd ranked club in our League.

Applying the principle of respecting the current standings, and having discussed this with UEFA, the Gibraltar FA can therefore confirm that Gibraltar’s UEFA Club Competition slots for the 2020-2021 season (pending compliance with the UEFA Club Licencing Process) will be as follows :

UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE – EUROPA FC (Currently ranked 1st in the League)
UEFA EUROPA LEAGUE – ST JOSEPH’S FC (Currently ranked 2nd in the League)
UEFA EUROPA LEAGUE – LINCOLN RED IMPS FC (Currently ranked 3rd in the League)
In order to finalise the Gibraltar National League, the Gibraltar FA Board of Directors will convene early next week together with the Gibraltar FA President and Members of the Governance & Strategy Board to reach a decision.

The Gibraltar FA would like to thank all of its Members for their co-operation and understanding during these unprecedented times. Together we all look forward to better times when football can return in a safe environment for all to enjoy once again. ”