LONDON: Tottenham’s Premier League game at Brighton on Sunday has been postponed due to a severe coronavirus outbreak at the north London club.
Eight Tottenham players and five staff members have tested positive for the virus, forcing the postponement of Thursday’s Europa Conference League tie against Rennes.
Tottenham asked Premier League chiefs to postpone this weekend’s trip to the Amex Stadium as well and their request was granted on Thursday.
“We can confirm that our Premier League fixture at Brighton & Hove Albion, on Sunday 12 December at 2pm, has been postponed following a Premier League Board meeting this afternoon (Thursday),” a Tottenham statement said.
“The Premier League Board took the decision to postpone the game following guidance from medical advisers, with the health of players and staff the priority. The fixture will be rescheduled in due course.
“The club requested the match to be rearranged following a significant number of positive COVID-19 cases among players and relevant staff.
“We should like to apologize to everyone at Stade Rennais and Brighton & Hove Albion and to both their supporters and ours for any inconvenience caused.”
Tottenham were forced to close their first-team training center on Wednesday as a result of the outbreak.
Their Premier League match at Leicester next Thursday will also be in doubt, not only because of the situation in Antonio Conte’s squad but because the Foxes have been hit by a less widespread Covid outbreak.
Conte was visibly emotional about the outbreak in his press conference ahead of the Rennes game on Wednesday.
“The problem is that every day we are having people with Covid,” Conte said.
“People that yesterday weren’t positive, today were positive and we continue to have contact with people we think are negative but the day after become positive. I think this is a serious problem.
“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.”
The postponement of further games will cause significant scheduling problems for Tottenham, who have already had a Premier League game at Burnley in November called off because of snow.
Discussions regarding the rescheduling of the game with Rennes are ongoing with UEFA, with rules stating there is a December 31 deadline for group games to be completed.
It is understood there could be some room for maneuver on that as Tottenham have a packed domestic schedule heading into the new year.
Rennes go on a winter break on December 22 and the French club have not taken the postponement of Thursday’s game well.
They accused Spurs of causing “London fog” by refusing to tell them how many cases they had and informing them in the afternoon that the game would be played, only to call it off an hour after they had arrived in the capital.
The Ligue 1 club, who returned to France on Thursday, later said they “hope the interests of the club will be respected” regarding a possible rearrangement.
Tottenham’s Brighton clash postponed after Covid outbreak
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Tottenham’s Brighton clash postponed after Covid outbreak
- Eight Tottenham players and five staff members have tested positive for the virus
- Tottenham asked Premier League chiefs to postpone this weekend's trip to the Amex Stadium
Postecoglou admits taking Nottingham Forest post a ‘bad decision’
- Postecoglou, 60, was appointed as Nuno Espirito Santo’s successor in September
- “There’s no point me blaming it on ‘I didn’t get time’ or anything,” said Postecoglou
LONDON: Ange Postecoglou has said he has only himself to blame for an extraordinarily brief reign as Nottingham Forest manager, with the Australian accepting he made “a bad decision” taking on the job with the Premier League strugglers.
Postecoglou, 60, was appointed as Nuno Espirito Santo’s successor in September.
But infamously impatient Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis sacked Postecoglou just 39 days later, after the experienced manager lost six of his eight games in charge.
Postecoglou, reflecting on his time at Forest for the Overlap podcast, said an over-eagerness to get back into management after his departure from Tottenham Hotspur three months earlier, had been the root cause of his troubles at the City Ground.
“There’s no point me blaming it on ‘I didn’t get time’ or anything,” said Postecoglou. “I should never have gone in there. That was on me. That was a bad decision by me to go in there. I’ve got to take ownership of that.
“It was too soon after Tottenham. I was taking over at a time where they were kind of used to doing things a certain way and I’m obviously going to do things differently. I’ve got to cop that, that was my mistake. It’s no-one else’s fault.”
Postecoglou remains without a club but he has ruled out returning to Celtic, where he enjoyed a successful two-year stint from 2021-23, with the 73-year-old Martin O’Neill currently in caretaker charge of the Scottish champions until the end of the season.
“I loved Celtic, it’s a wonderful football club,” said Postecoglou, who left the Glasgow giants to join Spurs. “If I was younger, I probably would have stayed there longer. I probably would have stayed there three, four years.
“I think I could have made progress with them in Europe but at the time, it had taken me a long time to get to this sort of space, and the opportunity to join Tottenham was too good.
“In terms of going back, I don’t go back. I just don’t think that’s kind of been my career.
“Whatever the next step is, it’ll be something new, somewhere I can make an impact in, somewhere I can win things, but it doesn’t diminish the affection I have for Celtic.”
