The postponement of the North London Derby has seen Tottenham release a statement to express their surprise that the request from Arsenal to have the game called off has been granted by the Premier League.
Tottenham Release Statement Unhappy With North London Derby Postponement
Regret
The Premier League were informed of Arsenal’s request to have the game called off on Friday 14th January and in a statement released on Saturday 15th, Tottenham have expressed ‘regret’ that the request has been accepted;
“We regret to announce that Sunday’s north London derby against Arsenal has been postponed.“
Arsenal made the request due to a combination of factors that included Covid, existing and recent injuries as well as players being on duty at the Africa Cup of Nations.
Extremely Surprised
The Spurs’ statement expressed the clubs’ surprise at the decision of the Premier League: “We are extremely surprised that this application has been approved.”
The statement pointed to the fact that Tottenham themselves have suffered through Covid this season and there was a suggestion that not all applications are being treated equally following Spurs’ request to have the Premier League game against Leicester City called off being declined but then approved when their opponents made the same application. Tottenham were also disqualified from the Europa Conference League when they couldn’t field a team to play against French side Rennes, and when the fixture was unable to be rearranged, Rennes were given the win that saw them through and Spurs out.
The statement said: “We ourselves were disqualified from the European Conference League after a significant number of COVID cases meant we needed to reschedule a fixture and our application to move our Leicester fixture was not approved – only for it to be subsequently postponed when Leicester applied.”
Guidance
Spurs feel that the guidance given in regard to matches being called off due to Covid has become blurred and the statement from the club was direct in its point of view;
“The original intention of the guidance – here – was to deal with player availability directly affected by COVID cases, resulting in depleted squads that when taken together with injuries would result in the club being unable to field a team.”
Intent
Tottenham also say that they do not believe that Arsenal made the application in line with the guidance and that football is now seeing;
“Unintended consequences”
of how the rule is applied.
Call for Consistency
Spurs have asked that clarity and consistency needs to be applied to the rule;
“It is important to have clarity and consistency on the application of the rule.”
Tottenham are clearly unhappy with decision but the game will now be rescheduled adding to an already hectic fixture pile up for Spurs.
Arsenal are yet to respond to Tottenham’s comments.
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