Basel, Jun 4 (AP) 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.

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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.

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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. AP

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)