The draw for the Champions League is always exciting but it seems that this year will top all the other before – the draw for the Round 16 will be renewed! A massive scandal happened today at the draw, when a mistake happened, which eventually led to the dismissal of the process. The main problem was that due to a mistake, when Manchester United were accidentally drawn against group rivals Villarreal, and omitted from being drawn against Atletico Madrid. Champions League draw: Messi vs Ronaldo, Bayern against AtleticoTeams that have faced each other in the group stage are not permitted to face one another in the last 16, so eyebrows were raised when former Arsenal forward Andriy Arshavin pulled out United out of the pot after Marchetti had picked out Villarreal.“No, this is not possible because Manchester United was in the group so we need to draw another one. Manchester United played in the same group as Villarreal so they must be paired with another team” intervened UEFA chief Giorgio Marchetti. Arshavin then selected United’s arch rivals Manchester City as the side to face Villareal.Following a technical problem with the software of an external service provider that instructs the officials as to which teams are eligible to play each other, a material error occurred in the draw for the UEFA Champions League Round of 16.— UEFA Champions League (@ChampionsLeague) December 13, 2021 UEFA basically made three errors. Firstly, Manchester United and Villarreal were drawn together when they were in the same group stage group. Then Liverpool were included in the draw for Atletico Madrid’s opponents, despite being in the same group, and finally, Manchester United were not included as a possible opponent for Atletico Madrid. The current La Liga champions, who had been drawn with Bayern Munich, lodged an appeal, asking to repeat the draw. According to the British media, Manchester United have not challenged the draw after their ball was drawn against Villarreal and then not in the pot to face Atletico Madrid.“Following a technical problem with the software of an external service provider that instructs the officials as to which teams are eligible to play each other, a material error occurred in the draw for the UEFA Champions League Round of 16. As a result of this, the draw has been declared void and will be entirely redone at 15:00 CET.” said UEFA in a statement. The new draw will be held at 17h EAT time.According to Marca, Real Madrid thought that a renewal of the draw was ‘scandal’. since both the balls of the rivals Benfica and Real Madrid were paired correctly. UEFA, however, says that the draw was not carried out correctly from the beginning and that it must be repeated in its entirety. In the upcoming hours (and days), there will be a lot of talk about this mess.
