Covid-19: Conte's Tottenham In Trouble As Rennes Rejects Postponement

Covid-19: Conte's Tottenham In Trouble As Rennes Rejects Postponement By Omolagba Oluwayemi Antonio Conte's Tottenham could be in for a legal battle as their tonight's opponent in the UEFA Europa Conference League, Stade Rennes refused to postpone their game despite the recent heavy Covid-19 cases in the camp of the Londoners, BSNSports com.ng reports. There is an outbreak of Coronavirus at Spurs, with at least eight players and five staff members affected by the virus. Tottenham released a statement this evening announcing that Thursday’s game “will not take place tomorrow after a number of positive COVID-19 cases at the Club. “Discussions are ongoing with UEFA and we shall provide a further update on this fixture in due course.” However, the UEFA protocol states that as long as a club has 13 players available, at least one of them a goalkeeper, then the game will go ahead. Rennes are confused by the situation and released their own statement tonight. “In a video conference between representatives of UEFA, Tottenham and SRFC, the Spurs director of football announced her intention not to play the UEFA Europa Conference League game Thursday evening. “It was a unilateral decision which has not been confirmed by UEFA in any way.” Tottenham did not confirm how many players have been affected by COVID, so it’s not clear if they are still forced to go ahead by the UEFA protocol. “As the match was not officially cancelled by UEFA, Stade Rennais FC uphold their decision to play.” Rennes flew into London yesterday and complained Tottenham were showing a “lack of fair play” by only informing them of the cancellation just after they landed. Spurs and UEFA had reassured only hours earlier that the game would go ahead. It is not the only COVID outbreak in an English club, because Leicester City travelled to Italy for their Europa League game against Napoli without seven players and three members of staff.