LINFIELD HAVE BEEN awarded a 3-0 victory for their postponed Champions League preliminary round tie against FC Drita which was due to take place on Tuesday.
The match was called off just two hours before kick-off after a second player from the Kosovan side tested positive for Covid-19. A separate player returned a positive result for Covid-19 on Friday and was put into quarantine.
Following Uefa’s decision to postpone the tie, a walkover has since been awarded to the Belfast side.
They will now face Poland’s Legia Warsaw in the first round on 18 August.
A statement on the Linfield FC website reads:
“In view of the whole team of KF Drita [KOS] being put into quarantine after a second player of this team had tested positive for COVID-19, the UEFA Champions League preliminary round match between KF Drita and Linfield FC [NIR] – scheduled for 11 August at 18:00 CET in Nyon, Switzerland – could not be played.
“The matter was submitted to the UEFA Control and Disciplinary Body, for a decision to be taken in accordance with Annex I of the 2020/21 UEFA Champions League regulations. Based on the Article 30 [4] of the UEFA Disciplinary Regulations and given the urgent circumstances of the matter, the chairman of the Control, Ethics and Disciplinary Body referred the case to the Appeals Body.
“The Chairman of the UEFA Appeals body took today the following decision:
“To declare the 2020/21 UEFA Champions League preliminary round match between KF Drita and Linfield FC, that was scheduled to be played on 11 August 2020, as forfeited by KF Drita, who is therefore deemed to have lost the match 3-0 in accordance with Annex I.2.1 to the Regulations of the UEFA Champions League [2020/21 season].
Linfield accepts and respects this decision and with the team safely back in Belfast, the focus and attention of everyone at the club is solely on the challenging 1st round tie away to Legia Warsaw on Tuesday August 18 [kick off 7pm local time].
“There will be no further comment on last night’s events.”
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