Champions League draw to be ‘completely redone

The draw for the knockout stages of the Champions League must be “completely redone” after an embarrassing technical error, European football governing body UEFA announced on Monday.

UEFA blamed a “material error” due to a “technical problem with the software of an external provider” by announcing that the draw for the first round of 16 first leg of its flagship competition would be redone at 14:00 GMT.

With the draw being broadcast live from UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland, the problem became evident when Manchester United’s name was drawn to face Villarreal, despite the fact that the two clubs would not have could compete having been in the same group.

Manchester City were chosen to play for the Spanish side, but the ball containing United’s name did not appear to be replaced correctly at the time and therefore they were not included as possible opponents for Atletico Madrid in the following draw. .

With all the draw in jeopardy, a red-faced UEFA had no choice but to start over.