The manager of Tottenham Hotspur, Antonio Conte has faulted the Premier League decision to postpone the league game between his team and Arsenal last weekend. The Italian tactician stressed that the decision was “strange” to him.
Recall that ahead of the Premier League game, Arsenal had to write to the league board that they did not have enough players to execute the game.
In a statement the Premier League issued to announce that the game has been postponed, the league body said the game had to be postponed because Arsenal had a couple of players in the ongoing AFCON in Cameroon, some injured players, and some players infected by covid-19.
After the game was postponed, Tottenham Hotspur which have also enjoyed the privilege of having their games postponed released a statement to agitate against the Premier League’s decision to postpone the match.
Ahead of the Premier League game between Tottenham Hotspur and Leicester City, coach Antonio Conte insisted that games ought to be postponed only if they involved covid-19 confirmed cases.
“The club made a statement and I think the club expressed our disappointment about the decision,” said Antonio Conte. “It was for sure a strange decision.
“My feeling is that when there is a situation to play, we have to play and not postpone games for injuries or international duty.
“We have a big problem to solve with Covid but only about this situation can you decide to postpone.
“This is the first time in my life – and I have a bit of experience in football – to see this decision. In this way, anything can happen.”
Antonio Conte blames the Premier League for Tottenham Hotspur drop in Europa Conference League
On December 12, Tottenham Hotspur suffered a series of covid-19 infections that forced their Premier League game against Brighton to be postponed.
Before then, the Tottenham Hotspur Europa Conference League Group match against Rennes was postponed due to a high number of covid-19 cases at Tottenham.
Afterward, UEFA was not able to reschedule the game and the game was canceled. UEFA disciplinary committee had to award a 3-0 victory to Rennes which ended Spur’s journey in the tournament.
Ahead of the Tottenham clash with Leicester City, coach Antonio Conte blamed the Premier League’s “difficult to accept” decisions for the club’s inability to progress in the Conference League.
Coach Conte said: “It’s not simple to prepare the game in every aspect, then arrive to play the game and it’s postponed for strange reasons.
“Tottenham has dropped off the Conference League because the Premier League didn’t want to move the game against Leicester. After the request of Leicester, they postponed. But Tottenham was dropped by UEFA. This is very strange.
“In this situation, there is a big disappointment for us, especially as we love football and worked a lot to try to play this competition. It’s very difficult to accept this decision.
“It was big damage to Tottenham from the Premier League. You have to try to protect your team in Europe and they penalized us in a bad way.
“We are working and we like to do this, but I think they have to show respect for our job.”
🗣 "Tottenham was dropped off from Conference League because Premier League didn't want to move the game against Leicester."
— Football Daily (@footballdaily) January 18, 2022
Antonio Conte felt the Premier League's decision to not disallow their game against Leicester damaged the club pic.twitter.com/VYBz8gsrXb
