Swiss soccer to restart earlier to help Basel

The Swiss soccer league will restart several days earlier than planned to help Europa League contender Basel cope with a backlog of matches in August. The restart amid the coronavirus pandemic was set for June 19-21 in the top two divisions.

The Swiss soccer federation now says Basel's Swiss Cup quarterfinal match against Lausanne Sport will be played without fans on June 14 instead of the August 5-6 dates for the other quarterfinal matches. Basel is scheduled to resume play in the Europa League in early August. It holds a 3-0 lead over Eintracht Frankfurt from the first leg of the round of 16.

Basel also faces a potential clash with this season's Europa League possibly overlapping with next season's preliminary rounds. Basel is currently in third place in the Swiss league and the third-place team should enter the Europa League qualifying rounds in late July or early August.