Following the consistency in the increase of coronavirus cases in Europe, Uefa has decided that Liverpool will not be able to travel to Germany for the first leg of their Champions League last-16 clash against Getman side RB Leipzig which comes up on the 16th of February.
Germany has banned countries with a high rate of the virus of which the United Kingdom is one of them. According to a German interior ministry, they said the German club side RB Leipzig had been told that the fixture “does not meet the requirements for an exception”.
Uefa also said they are in touch with the respective clubs” about the tie. And they will keep the English Premier League champions up to date on what will decide at the end of everything.
RB Leipzig is currently in search of a stadium as they are in touch with both Liverpool and UEFA. They have been given until 8 of February to present a solution to European football’s governing body and are confident the match will still hold even if not in Germany in RB Leipzig home.
Because of the recent changes, Uefa has updated its regulations for the knockout stages of the two European competitions. One of which says If restrictions imposed in a country could result in a match not taking place, “the home club must propose a suitable alternative venue, which may be in a neutral country”.
But the host club fails to do that and it is not possible to play the game at another venue or on a different date, Uefa says they will rule out the match and give the away team three points which means the team lost the game.
Germany’s restrictions will last till the 17th of this month in February. It most likely that an option that Liverpool should host the first leg, so they can wait to reschedule the second leg.
Uefa said the venue of every match must be approved by them and they have the right to assign an alternative venue for any game or even to decide that either or both legs of the relevant round to be rescheduled if need be.
Liverpool and RB Leipzig game is not the first with such issue, Arsenal and Benfica made an appeal to play in a neutral ground which Uefa approved due to the rise in number of coronavirus patients.
