Antonio Conte suggested Tottenham will take UEFA to court over the governing body s unfair decision that consequently eliminated his side from the Europa Conference League.
Spurs final group match against Rennes on December 9 was called off late on following a coronavirus outbreak at the Premier League club that saw five staff members and eight players test positive.
With a new date unable to be set for their European encounter, UEFA ruled that Spurs had forfeited the game and awarded Rennes a 3-0 victory, therefore eliminating Conte s side from the competition.
However, Conte does not agree with UEFA s decision to award Rennes the win and claimed the outcome may even have been influenced by personal interest .
For sure this is an incredible decision, he said at a news conference previewing Wednesday s EFL Cup quarter-final with West Ham. This decision is not fair. All the world knows we were facing a big problem like COVID.
We didn t play through our fault but because we had many, many players with COVID and the government decided to stop our training sessions and to [shut] our training centre.
Honestly for me, the players, the club and our fans, it s incredible the decision UEFA wanted to take. It s unfair for sure.
We deserve to play for qualification on the pitch, not in this way. I m very disappointed for UEFA s decision.
I hope that in the future, in the next step, something can change because we deserve to play for qualification on the pitch, not in this way. It s not our fault.
UEFA took this decision but then there s another step to confirm or not this incredible decision. But I repeat I m very disappointed with UEFA because everybody knows the problem.
It means maybe someone doesn t know the problem we were having and maybe [there was] some personal interest [behind the decision].
Orchestrating their teams.
— Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial)
UEFA rules state a team cannot call off a match if they have 13 players from their A list, including a goalkeeper, available to play.
Asked to clarify if the next step means taking the case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, Conte added: Yeah. UEFA took this decision but there s another step and we re confident that there s another step.
I repeat, it was incredible what UEFA did. Also, in explanation about this defeat, I have read that Tottenham couldn t play [a rearranged] game because of COVID cases. I dispute this. But [UEFA] took this decision.
We are very, very confident for the next step and I repeat we deserve to play for qualification on the pitch, not in the court. I can t accept this. We are very, very disappointed with UEFA for this.
Rennes finished top of Group G and are through to the last 16 of UEFA s third-tier European competition, while Vitesse – who finished three points ahead of Tottenham – are scheduled to face Rapid Vienna in the play-off round.
