Uefa to back down over Liverpool's match at Atletico MadridLiverpool's Champions League clash with Atletico Madrid next Wednesday is set to go ahead at the Spanish club's Estadio Vicente Calderon with Uefa officials preparing to bow to pressure from Anfield and the Football Association to defer Atletico's two-game stadium ban until after next week's Group D fixture.
By Mark Ogden
Last Updated: 7:56AM BST 16 Oct 2008
Atletico-bound: it appears that Uefa will back down after pressure from Liverpool and the FA over the moving of the Champions League match at Atletico Madrid. Uefa are understood to have contacted high-ranking officials at Atletico to confirm that the two-game sanction, imposed as a result of alleged racist chanting and over-zealous policing during the Oct 1 encounter with Marseilles, will begin, subject to appeal, following the visit of Rafael Benitez's team on Oct 22. An official announcement is expected from Uefa on Thursday.
Uefa's initial decision on Tuesday that Atletico must stage their next two European fixtures at least 300 km away from the Vicente Calderon had left in excess of 3,000 travelling Liverpool supporters facing the prospect of being marooned in Madrid next Wednesday.
Although Uefa remain steadfast in their determination to punish Atletico, both Liverpool and the FA had made representations for the two-game stadium ban to be deferred until after next week's fixture to avoid thousands of supporters being left out of pocket by any change of venue.
An FA spokesman said: "We have been working with Liverpool to help them with the situation. We have made it clear to Uefa that the Football Association shares the club's concerns of the impact that moving this game will have on the travelling supporters. We will do whatever we can to help Liverpool with this matter."
Liverpool manager Benitez has warned Uefa that moving the game from Madrid at such late notice will cause 'massive problems' for the club's supporters, but the likelihood of the game being staged elsewhere diminished with the Spanish government throwing their backing behind Atletico's planned appeal against the two-game penalty and £120,000 fine.
Uefa president Michel Platini has contacted Spain's prime minister, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, by letter to explain the sanctions imposed on Atletico and the sanctions will remain in place following the Liverpool game.
However, there remains anger within Spain at the severity of Atletico's punishment and the country's Minister of Interior Affairs, Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba has insisted that Atletico, and the actions of the Spanish police, will be supported by the government.
Rubalcaba said: "I will defend the actions of the Spanish police and we will hand all the necessary material that we have available to Atletico Madrid so that they can present an appeal against this unusual decision."
Atletico attempted to defend themselves on Wednesday night against Uefa's charges of racist chanting by issuing the following statement on the club's official website.
The statement said: "The chants may possibly correspond to the chants that the supporters of Atletico Madrid sing in order to cheer on their team and their player Kun Aguero, repeating over-and-o ver again the sound 'Kun, Kun, Kun,' a circumstance that may have caused the Marseilles players to confuse said sound with that made by monkeys."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/leagues/premierleague/liverpool/3205016/Uefa-to-back-down-over-Liverpools-match-at-Atletico-Madrid-Football.html--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Doesn't seem to be just speculation. There's a number of similar stories in a few papers.
Ironic there was so much speculation of one man coming over from Madrid a few summers ago. Now there's loads of speculation whether we're going to Madrid!
