Irish Times
Antonio Conte has laid bare the depth of his anger towards Uefa over the decision to throw Tottenham out of the Europa Conference League, describing it as incredible, unfair and influenced by “personal interest”.
The Spurs manager also made clear his determination to fight it at a higher level – in other words, the Court of Arbitration for Sport. The club have confirmed that they will consider going there with an appeal although, at present, it is nothing more than a consideration.
Spurs were unable to play their final tie of the group phase at home to Rennes on December 9th after they were affected by a Covid outbreak that saw eight first-team players and five coaches test positive. On the advice of health authorities, they temporarily closed the first-team area of their training ground. Uefa rules say that games can be postponed if a club have fewer than 13 available senior players and no goalkeeper.
When Spurs’s attempts to find a new date for the tie before Uefa’s cut-off of December 31st failed, the governing body awarded Rennes a 3-0 walk-over, meaning that Vitesse Arnhem advanced from second place to a two-leg play-off for the last 16. Had Spurs beaten Rennes, they would have finished second.
“There are no positives [about easing a crowded calendar] and, for sure, this is an incredible decision,” Conte said.
“This decision is not fair. It wasn’t our fault. It was because we had many, many players with Covid and the government decided to stop our…
