UEFA has a contingency plan to replace Wembley Stadium as the host for the final of EURO 2020 unless the British government agrees to exempt travelling foreign fans from 10-day quarantine rules, it said on Friday.

Tournament organisers have been in negotiations with the government since it postponed plans to end COVID-19 restrictions on June 21.

The Times newspaper reported on Friday that Budapest was the alternative venue being considered if Wembley was not able to accept travelling supporters.

The London stadium is scheduled to host both semi-finals and the final.

“There is always a contingency plan but we are confident that the final week (of matches) will be held in London,” UEFA said in a statement.

European football’s governing body said discussions with local authorities centred on allowing fans of participating teams to attend matches “using a strict testing and bubble concept that would mean their stay in the UK would be less than 24 hours and their movements would be restricted to approved transport and venues only”.

Meanwhile, Moscow has closed its Euro 2020 fan zone and banned gatherings of more than 1,000 because of a spike in COVID-19 cases, the mayor of the Russian capital said.

“I didn’t want to do this, but we have to,” Sergei Sobyanin wrote on his website on Friday, a day after saying that cases in Moscow had nearly tripled in just days.

“Starting today, we will limit mass events to a maximum of 1,000 people.”

“We are temporarily stopping all mass entertainment events and we’ll also have to close dance halls and fan zones,” he wrote, referring to the Euro 2020 fan zone outside of the Luzhniki stadium in Moscow.

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