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UEFA Champions League

UEFA SLAMS MAN UTD WITH FINE

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UEFA have fined Manchester United a total of £13,200 after the team arrived late to their Champions League match with Valencia, delaying the kick off as a result.

 

According to 90.min publication, United did not arrive at Old Trafford until 7:15pm as a result of traffic in Manchester, so the start of the match was delayed to give their players a chance to sufficiently warm up.

 

However, both United and Valencia were then late leaving their dressing rooms, forcing kick off to be delayed even further.

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As reported by ​Sky Spo​rts, the late arrival and late kick off of the match was the reason behind the £13,200 fine.

 

Mourinho has previously spoken about the incident, insisting that Greater Manchester Police’s reluctance to order an escort for the team bus is to blame for his side’s lateness.

He said, as quoted by the ​Manchester Evening News: “We left the hotel at six o’clock, hoping that 30 minutes would be enough. Which normally is but this time the police refused to do an escort so we come by ourselves. And we took from the Lowry Hotel, 75 minutes.

 

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“And UEFA were nice, the referee was nice to allow us to start the game five minutes later because we at least need half an hour to be prepared but was not a problem with the club organisation.

“We anticipate everything that it could be dangerous, in the sense of arriving late but we were informed the police refused an escort.”

 

Valencia, who were staying in a hotel more than six miles away from the ground, managed to make it to Old Trafford on time, despite the heavy traffic around the city. The match itself ended 0-0, in what proved to be an easily-forgettable encounter.

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Kunle Solaja is the author of landmark books on sports and journalism as well as being a multiple award-winning journalist and editor of long standing. He is easily Nigeria’s foremost soccer diarist and Africa's most capped FIFA World Cup journalist, having attended all FIFA World Cup finals from Italia ’90 to Qatar 2022. He was honoured at the Qatar 2022 World Cup by FIFA and AIPS.

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