Marseille looks set to miss out on hosting the Heineken Champions Cup final for a second year running.
The city's Stade Velodrome is scheduled to host both the European Challenge Cup final (May 21) and the Heineken Champions Cup final (May 22).
Marseille was originally intended as the finals' host city in 2020, but the COVID-19 pandemic saw the Champions Cup final held at Bristol's Ashton Gate, and the Challenge Cup decider played at the Stade Maurice-David in Aix-en-Provence.
A final decision on this year's finals venue is due to be made by March 31.
Both RMC Sport and L'Equipe are reporting that Marseille's hosting duties will again be pushed back to 2022. The Tottenham Hotspur Stadium was slated to host the final in 2023, but will now wait until 2023.
Tournament organisers - EPCR - have two-fold issues with Marseille acting as host city this year, according to those reports in France.
Firstly, it's feared there will be no regular flights between the United Kingdom and Marseille by late May.
Secondly, with the United Kingdom set to welcome back fans to stadiums on May 17, the EPCR want to take advantage and have a final play out with bums on seats.
Revised editions of both the Heineken Champions Cup and the Challenge Cup are due to resume with rounds-of-16 on the first weekend of April.
An EPCR decision on the finals' venues will be known by then, with the organisers saying earlier this month, "Discussions are ongoing between EPCR, the Ligue Nationale de Rugby, Olympique de Marseille and local and regional authorities to continually assess the feasibility of staging the Heineken Champions Cup and European Rugby Challenge Cup finals in Marseille on 21/22 May in the context of the ever-evolving global crisis and subject to official advice and with the health and welfare of players, club staff, match officials and the wider rugby community in mind."
Scott Brown to end 14-year Celtic spell as he agrees Aberdeen deal
Download the brand new OffTheBall App in the Play Store & App Store right now! We've got you covered!
Subscribe to OffTheBall's YouTube channel for more videos, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for the latest sporting news and content.
