Soccer

All in the Game: Covid and dodgy draws wrecking fans’ plans

Word of mouth, quote of the week, by the numbers and more

Aston Villa fans walk away from the stadium after their game against Burnley was postponed. Photo: Michael Steele/Getty Images

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Mary Hannigan
Mon Dec 20 2021 - 09:00

Luckiest Fans of the Week: We’ll go with the Chelsea and Lille faithful who rushed to book cheap flights, before the fares were hiked, after they were drawn against each other in the last 16 of the Champions League. And then the draw had to be re-done due to a ‘technical error’, but, miraculously, Chelsea and Lille were drawn against each other again.

Unluckiest Fans of the Week: We’ll go with the Benfica, Real Madrid, Villarreal, Manchester City, Atletico Madrid, Bayern Munich, Salzburg, Liverpool, Inter Milan, Ajax, Sporting Lisbon, Manchester United, PSG and Juventus faithful who rushed to book cheap flights, before the fares were hiked, after the Champions League last 16 draw. And then the draw had to be re-done due to a ‘technical error’, and all of them ended up with different pairings.

Sample Reaction of the Unluckiest Fans: “I cant believe it, me and my friends have booked tickets to Paris due to the Champions League draw, and now you are telling me I wasted £150 on flights and hotels due to the corrupt Uefa. Please help @ManUtd @UEFA @Ryanair.”

You’d have a sinking feeling that the poor lad will be waiting for a refund. But hopefully his Champions League-less trip to Paris will be nice.

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Quotes of the week

“Because of Covid, we had a training session with only 10, 12 players. We had to train with mannequins. It’s not the same thing.” - Spurs gaffer Antonio Conte. Some gags just write themselves.

By the numbers

25: The percentage of players in England's Championship, League One and League Two who do not intend to be vaccinated. It could be a long season.

Word of mouth

“Barca are not direct rivals now because there are other teams closer like Sevilla or Betis. But they have the quality to move up the table.” - Real Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti sending the mother of all miaows in the direction of poor Barcelona.

“Fate is capricious. I would have liked another team to have played us. You know the affection and love I have for Real Madrid. But I am going to die for PSG in these games.” - Madrid old boy Sergio Ramos on the rather lengthy lengths he’s prepared to travel to ensure PSG make it through to the Champions League quarter-finals.

“They have brought in one of the game’s great spoofers in Ralf Rangnick .... they are worse off now than when Solskjaer was at the wheel. He’s a great PR man .... but in pure footballing terms, his rhetoric is the biggest load of crap.” - Roddy Collins, warmly embracing Rangnick’s arrival at Manchester United.

“I don’t think anyone has a backside the size of mine.” - Aston Villa’s boastful John McGinn, big-bummed and proud.

“We met Mbappe. I said ‘hey, nice to meet you’. He was really friendly, so I said, ‘mate, you have to come to Tottenham,’ and he just burst out laughing.” - Actor and Spurs diehard Tom Holland on his somewhat dispiriting meeting with Kylian Mbappe in Paris recently.

Covid wrecking fans plans

It was a couple of weeks back that we shared the sad tale of the American couple who travelled 4,600 miles from Dallas to Burnley to see their beloved Spurs in action, only for the game to be called off due to snow.

Ten-year-old Kaito Jones, though, could only envy the shortness of their trip - he travelled 7,000 miles from Singapore with his mother to see Aston Villa play for the very first time, their opponents also Burnley so there could be a jinx thing going on here.

“I wanted to see his face light up when he saw Villa Park,” his dad Danny told the Mirror. “[So] he was on a video call with me and buying a scarf when a guy behind said ‘for **** sake, the game has been called off’. It was two hours before kick-off. Kaito was absolutely devastated.”

Villa have one more game before Kaito heads home, against Chelsea on Stephen’s Day, but with several members of the squad having tested positive for Covid, you’d be fearing the worst for the little fella. Unless Santa can intervene with a slew of negative results.