Tottenham’s Europa Conference League clash with Rennes is POSTPONED

Tottenham’s Europa Conference League clash against Rennes has been postponed because of the club’s Covid crisis.

As Sportsmail reported, there was growing confidence at the north London club on Wednesday night that UEFA would agree to postpone the fixture.

The news comes after the club reported at least 13 positive coronavirus cases – including 11 players.

Tottenham ’s Europa Conference League clash against Rennes has been postponed

Spurs officials had been in talks with representatives from European football’s governing body with a view to getting the game halted.

A club statement read: ‘We can confirm that our UEFA Europa Conference League Group G home fixture against Stade Rennais will not take place tomorrow (Thursday 9 December at 8pm UK) after a number of positive COVID-19 cases at the Club.

‘Discussions are ongoing with UEFA and we shall provide a further update on this fixture in due course.

‘Additionally, following discussions with the Health Security Agency and DCMS advisers, the Club has been advised to close the First Team area of its Training Centre at this time, in the interests of the health and safety of players and staff.

‘All other areas of the Training Centre remain operational.’

The news will delight Antonio Conte who spoke passionately about why the game should not go ahead on Wednesday.

Conte confirmed the number of Covid-hit members of the Spurs camp had swelled to 13 with another two people among the playing squad and staff testing positive — after being involved in training on Wednesday. 

It comes after the club reported at least 13 positive coronavirus cases – including 11 players 

UEFA rules state that a team must fulfil a fixture if they have at least 13 fit players including a goalkeeper. 

Spurs were believed to have just about enough players available, without the suspended Ryan Sessegnon plus their injured and Covid-affected players, to meet that threshold.

But with their squad so severely weakened, common sense has prevailed. There were also concerns about forcing Rennes to travel to and from England and into a seemingly unsafe environment.

UEFA had on Wednesday maintained they were expecting the game ‘to take place as scheduled’ but were closely monitoring the situation.

A visibly upset Conte said: ‘The problem is every day we are having people with Covid.

‘People who yesterday weren’t positive, today are positive, and we continue to have contact. This is a serious problem. Not a good situation. Every day we are having positives.

It is not yet known which players have been affected, with seven initially picking up the virus before the situation escalated

‘Everyone is a bit scared because we all have family and (think) why do I have to take this risk?

‘There are situations that made me very, very upset, very upset because the situation is serious and it is contagious and there is a big infection and now for sure we are a bit scared because tomorrow we don’t know what happens.

‘Today we had the training session, we prepared the game and yesterday two other positives, today two other positives and tomorrow, who?

‘Me? Maybe. Better me than a player for sure but I think that it is not right for everyone because we have family and we have contact with them.’

A postponement does cause a fixture pile-up for Spurs, who must fulfil the fixture by the end of December and have six other matches to play before January.

Wednesday’s two positive results came following standard pre-match UEFA Covid checks. Given the outbreak, Spurs could conduct more on Thursday, raising the prospect of learning that the virus has spread further.

Conte said the players were worried about passing the virus on to their families and said he was ‘upset’ about the situation

Spurs are also set to request that the Premier League rearrange Sunday’s trip to Brighton and will be hopeful after Newcastle and Aston Villa had games called off last season when their cases hit double figures.

Manchester City had a request accepted after recording fewer than 10 positives and Fulham had two games moved. 

With those who have tested positive forced to isolate for 10 days, Spurs could also have issues with their two games next week — at Leicester and at home against Liverpool.

Spurs’ outbreak began ahead of Sunday’s 3-0 win over Norwich, who were made aware of the issues in the north Londoners’ camp and non-involvement of those affected players whose status was known at the time.

Norwich’s players were back in on Wednesday and tested with no issues reported.