{"id":607820,"date":"2022-01-15T19:00:09","date_gmt":"2022-01-16T00:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/?p=607820"},"modified":"2022-01-15T19:00:09","modified_gmt":"2022-01-16T00:00:09","slug":"tottenham-arsenal-postponed-statement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2022\/01\/15\/tottenham-arsenal-postponed-statement\/","title":{"rendered":"Tottenham Release Statement Stating \u2018Surprise\u2019 at North London Derby Postponement"},"content":{"rendered":"

The postponement of the North London Derby has seen Tottenham release a statement<\/a> to express their surprise that the request from Arsenal to have the game called off has been granted by the Premier League.<\/p>\n

Tottenham Release Statement Unhappy With North London Derby Postponement<\/h2>\n

Regret<\/h3>\n

The Premier League were informed of Arsenal\u2019s request to have the game called off on Friday 14th January and in a statement released on Saturday 15th, Tottenham<\/a> have expressed \u2018regret\u2019 that the request has been accepted;<\/p>\n

\u201cWe regret to announce that Sunday\u2019s north London derby against Arsenal has been postponed.\u201c<\/p>\n

Arsenal<\/a> 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 \u00a0Nations.<\/p>\n

Extremely Surprised<\/h3>\n

The Spurs\u2019 statement expressed the clubs\u2019 surprise at the decision of the Premier League:\u00a0\u201cWe are extremely surprised that this application has been approved.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u2019 request to have the Premier League game against Leicester City <\/a>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\u2019t field a team to play against French side Rennes<\/a>, and when the fixture was unable to be rearranged, Rennes were given the win that saw them through and Spurs out.<\/p>\n

The statement said: \u201cWe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Guidance<\/h3>\n

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;<\/p>\n

\u201cThe original intention of the guidance – here<\/a><\/strong> – 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Intent<\/h3>\n

Tottenham also say that they do not believe that Arsenal made the application in line with the guidance and that football is now seeing;<\/p>\n

\u201cUnintended consequences\u201d<\/p>\n

of how the rule is applied.<\/p>\n

Call for Consistency<\/h3>\n

Spurs have asked that clarity and consistency needs to be applied to the rule;<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is important to have clarity and consistency on the application of the rule.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tottenham are clearly unhappy with decision but the game will now be rescheduled adding to an already hectic fixture pile up for Spurs.<\/p>\n

Arsenal are yet to respond to Tottenham\u2019s comments.<\/p>\n

Main Photo<\/p>\n

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Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/div>\n