UEFA has been forced to order a re-run of the draw for this season’s Champions League last 16 after a botched ceremony in Switzerland – and some fans pointed the finger at Russian legend Andrey Arshavin.
Monday’s draw at UEFA HQ in Nyon appeared to throw up some intriguing ties – not least Manchester United and Cristiano Ronaldo being paired with Lionel Messi’s PSG.
But the dust had yet to settle before fans and pundits were crying foul across social media about an apparent error in the draw procedure.
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<img src="https://cdni.rt.com/files/2021.12/thumbnail/61b73d7e85f5405e8f0d5060.jpg" alt="The UEFA Champions League draw caused controversy. © Twitter" />
<figcaption><a href="/sport/543047-champions-league-draw-man-united/">UEFA to repeat Champions League draw after shocking error (VIDEO)</a></figcaption>
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The mistake centered on Manchester United, who were initially placed with Villarreal.
However, as the two teams met in the group stage, they were not eligible to face each other in the last 16.
Manchester City were then drawn to play Villarreal instead, with Atletico Madrid next popping up.
The problem, though, was that Manchester United had not been returned to the pot of eligible teams to play Atletico, when in reality they should have been.
Instead, United ended up appearing in the last tie of the draw against French giants PSG.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">It definitely looks like <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/mufc?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#mufc</a>’s ball - in the second pot from the right, back row - was not included in the Atletico Madrid draw. <a href="https://t.co/ubxQHdjkQV">pic.twitter.com/ubxQHdjkQV</a></p>— Mark Critchley (@mjcritchley) <a href="https://twitter.com/mjcritchley/status/1470356868438573063?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 13, 2021</a></blockquote>
Explaining the error, UEFA laid the blame at the door of an external software provider while announcing a re-run for later on Monday.