Liverpool against playing in Israel

Liverpool will make an official protest to Uefa about the prospect of having to play a Champions League tie in Israel.

The 2005 European champions will fight any attempt to make them play the second leg of the third qualifying round tie with Maccabi Haifa in Tel Aviv on August 22/23 as the conflict in Lebanon continues.

Liverpool's secretary Bryce Morrison - representing the club at the draw in Nyon - had lengthy discussions with Uefa, Haifa officials as well as Liverpool's chief executive Rick Parry - who did not travel to Switzerland for the draw - over the problems of playing a match in Israel.

Currently Uefa allow Israel only to play club and international matches in the Tel Aviv area, which rules out Haifa - the country's third city which is under missile bombardment.

Liverpool do not even want to play the second leg in Cyprus, but instead have suggested a neutral country - possibly Holland - as the venue.

And they have already been told a final decision will be made by next Wednesday, despite Haifa's desire to retain home advantage and play in Tel Aviv.

Morrison said: "We will have to wait until I am able to get home to discuss the situation.

"Cyprus is not an option because of the amount of people who have come out of Lebanon who are there, a lot of Lebanese are there at the moment.

"We would much prefer that the game is played at a neutral ground, somewhere else."

Manager Rafael Benitez said: "It's a crazy situation and totally unacceptable to even think about us going over there at this time.

"A few years back, when I was with Valencia, we were drawn to play Maccabi Haifa in a Uefa Cup tie and the match was switched to Cyprus. The situation then was nowhere near as bad as it is now.

"Valencia also had a European game in the Ukraine on the day the Twin Towers were attacked in America and I can remember the confusion that caused with the players on their mobile phones constantly to their families who were wondering when we'd be getting back.

"It's impossible to prepare for a game in these circumstances."