Antonio Conte has revealed that his Tottenham players questioned him why exactly UEFA’s outcome went in the favour of Rennes. Making it clear in his pre-match press conference ahead of the West Ham Carabao Cup game that he is extremely unhappy about UEFA’s “incredible” and “unfair” decision, he also admitted that there is a “next step”. That would in fact be an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, but at this stage Tottenham are only considering an appeal and a decision has not been made.
Antonio Conte said: “I think that this decision will be taken about another level of court,” outlined the Italian. “Don’t forget the players ask me why. The players are very, very disappointed in this decision. We are all confident because I think you receive a punishment if you deserve it, if you miss something, but we prepared for the game against Rennes. We did everything to play the game. But if someone else stops you for an important reason – a Covid reason – then I don’t understand why Tottenham has to pay in this situation. This is unfair and for sure, we will fight against this decision because we want to play. We want to play the qualification on the pitch – not in the court. We have to play. If we don’t win, it’s right to go out of this competition. It’s fair. We deserve to play the qualification on the pitch.”
Conte also alluded to “personal interests” over the decision when speaking in his pre-match press conference and he was asked about what he exactly he meant by that.
Antonio Conte added: “For me it’s very, very difficult. It’s very difficult to understand this decision. Every club works very, very hard. Tottenham started to play in this competition from this summer and now it’s unfair for a decision that is not in our hands and to tell Tottenham, ‘Thanks very much, you went here, here and here, but now you lose 3-0’. Because why? Why? We honoured the competition to play and to go around Europe. But now UEFA is taking a decision that I don’t like. It is lacking respect about our job. It’s not fair. We are confident that something can change in the future because the players, the fans, the club want to play the qualification on the pitch, not in the court.”
