UEFA confirmed last week that Tottenham‘s Europa Conference League game vs Stade Rennais would not be played. Today, they concluded that the match will be treated as a forfeit from Spurs, and will therefore result in a 3-0 win for the French side, seeing Tottenham Hotspur eliminated from the competition.
Tottenham Hotspur Eliminated From Europa Conference League
The game which was scheduled to take place on the 9th December was originally called off due to the growing number of positive COVID-19 tests in the Spurs camp. The decision has now been taken to give Rennes a 3-0 victory due to the nature of the fixture’s cancellation.
The decision taken means Spurs finish 3rd in their group, behind Stade Rennais in 1st and Vitesse as runners up, and so will not take part in the next round of the competition.
Following the forfeit, Vitesse will face Austrian team Rapid Wien in the next round.
The statement said: “the 2021/22 UEFA Europa Conference League group stage match between Tottenham Hotspur FC and Stade Rennais FC, that was initially scheduled to be played on 9 December 2021, as forfeited by Tottenham Hotspur FC, who is therefore deemed to have lost the match 0-3 in accordance with Annex J.3.1 to the Regulations of the UEFA Europa Conference League (2021/22 Season).”
COVID-19 Outbreak Within Premier League clubs
When this game originally got suspended, there were no concerns regarding a possible suspension of football. However, over the next few days multiple Premier League clubs reported cases. Only 4 out of 10 games occurred in Matchweek 18 following COVID outbreaks at numerous clubs, including Manchester United, Brentford, Aston Villa, & Watford.
There has been talk of postponing gameweek 20 of the competition, which occurs 28-30 December. All Premier League clubs are set to meet Monday to discuss this possibility according to David Ornstein.
Tottenham currently find themselves in 7th position in the PL table, however, they have 3 games in hand on the top 4. They resumed to action on Sunday in a thrilling 2-2 draw with title-chasers Liverpool. This was their first game since the December 5th following the outbreak.
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