Tottenham wanted Leicester Premier League game called off to play Rennes
Spurs had to postpone their Europa Conference League match against the French side due to Covid-19 issues
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Tottenham Hotspur requested Thursday night’s Premier League game with Leicester City to be postponed in order to play their Europa Conference League match with Rennes.
Spurs had to call off the Group G tie with the French side last week after a Covid-19 outbreak at the club and Uefa rules stated that the fixture had to be rescheduled by December 31.
The governing body announced on Saturday that no new date was possible and the matter had been referred to its control, ethics and disciplinary body for a decision to be taken, with either side potentially being awarded a 3-0 win depending on the adjudication.
Tottenham identified Thursday as a possible date to rearrange and asked the Premier League to reschedule the game at the King Power Stadium.
Spurs, who explored every feasible option to get the game replayed, have even offered to travel to France to play the remaining match. A win of any kind would send them through to the knockout stages ahead of Dutch side Vitesse Arnhem.
Antonio Conte whose side have already had two league games called off, said that an agreement with UEFA was not possible, though the PA news agency understands that the Premier’s League stance would be to prioritise their own competition.
“For sure, the Premier League didn’t want to postpone the game against Leicester, maybe because we have to play against Burnley and Brighton. We postponed two games before,” he said.
“I can understand, we can understand. On the other hand, I think we deserve to play our chance against Rennes to go to the next group.
“We don’t find a good solution between UEFA and Premier League, why Tottenham has to pay for this?
“It’s not fair we have to pay for a situation that isn’t our fault? I understand if we did something wrong but in this way, for the club, the players, the staff, it’s very difficult to understand what’s happening.
“We want to play the game. Tottenham deserves to play the game, to play the last game of this group.
“It’s a really strange situation because we didn’t play through no fault of our own but because of a big problem and because the Government decided to close our training ground, to stop our training session for three days.
“For this reason we didn’t play. Not for another reason. I think we don’t have fault for what happened. I tell you, we deserve to play this game and to try to have a chance to go to the next round.”
We don’t find a good solution between UEFA and Premier League, why Tottenham has to pay for this?
Leicester boss Brendan Rodgers has confirmed his side also wanted the game called off because of a coronavirus outbreak, where nine players are expected to be missing.
Spurs are not out of the woods with their own Covid troubles as just 16 senior players trained on Wednesday.
Several players are back in training following their exit from isolation and Conte revealed that some of them could be on the bench.
“We started with 13 or 14 players,” Conte said. “But today we had training with 16 players and more young players.
“For sure some players tomorrow they can’t play. As I said before, players are back in training and today two players are back in training for the first time.
“And yesterday another player. But as you know well, they need to be fit to play.
“Surely tomorrow I’ll put these players on the bench for 15-20 minutes at the end. They have in their legs 20 or 25 minutes to play with us.”
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments