Champions League draw: UEFA accused of ‘rigged’ ties after latest Manchester United error
How Champions League draw panned out amid chaos with redraw called
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UEFA put Formula One to shame on Monday morning as the Champions League last-16 draw descended into chaos. Manchester United were drawn to face Villarreal despite the two sides qualifying from the same group. After former Arsenal star Andrey Arshavin pulled the Red Devils’ ball out of the pot, it had to be put back in.
Unai Emery’s side were instead drawn to face Manchester City, while United were handed a tricky clash with Paris Saint-Germain — a dream tie for broadcasters with Cristiano Ronaldo coming up against Lionel Messi.
Prior to being picked to face PSG, United were not even included in Atletico Madrid’s pot as potential opponents.
Atletico were drawn against Bayern Munich, but lodged a successful appeal for the draw to be made for a second time.
UEFA issued a statement at the time: “Following a technical problem with the software of an external service provider that instructs the officials as to which teams are eligible to play each other, a material error occurred in the draw for the UEFA Champions League round of 16.
“As a result of this, the draw has been declared void and will be entirely redone at 1500 CET (14:00 GMT).”
Fans quickly flocked to social media to vent their fury, with more than 66,000 tweets containing the word “rigged” at the time of writing.
Manchester United fan Aidan Walsh tweeted: “UEFA is corrupt. Our draw was 100% rigged to ensure we got PSG so that they could benefit from Ronaldo vs Messi.
“Absolute joke of a draw.”
Others, meanwhile, expressed their fury at the voided draw.
Liverpool fan Damian Fahy wrote: “Just booked flights and hotel in Salzburg. If this draw gets redone and we don’t get same side, @ChampionsLeague @UEFAcom are going to reimburse I assume?”
It is not the first time UEFA have been accused of foul play, however.
Back in 2013, former Turkish referee Ahmet Cakar sensationally claimed that UEFA use vibrating balls to ensure the biggest clubs are kept apart until the latter stages of their competitions.
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Speaking on Turkish television channel Beyaz TV, he said the vibrations allow those carrying out the draw to know exactly when to draw each ball, guaranteeing the ties that UEFA chiefs desire.
He claimed: “UEFA manipulated the draw for both the Champions League and Europa League.”
Mr Cakar raised his suspicions after the Champions League last-16 draw in December 2012, when the rehearsal draw was identical to the real one the following day.
The disgraced former Fifa president Sepp Blatter told Argentinian newspaper La Nacion in 2016 that a European competition had been fixed.
Although he did not elaborate on which competition he believed was rigged, he said he had seen a practice whereby different balls were cooled to make their identification possible.
He said: “Balls are put in the freezer before the draw, at the slightest touch you can tell if the balls are hot or cold.
“By touching them you know exactly what you have.”
UEFA were also accused of fixing the semi-final draw in the 2017/18 competition.
AS Roma advertised tickets for their clash with Liverpool some 24 hours before the draw was made.
Twitter user PrestwichBlue wrote: “So Roma knew yesterday that that’d be playing Liverpool as they advertised tickets on their website.
“But it’s not fixed of course.”
UEFA declined to comment further when approached by Express.co.uk.
The draw was remade at 2pm GMT, see here for the full list of ties.
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