Liverpool: Reds Will Play At The Vicente Calderon

Reds Will Play At The Vicente Calderon

Liverpool will play the Champions League match with Atletico Madrid at the Vicente Calderon after Uefa reversed their decision to hand them a two-match ban, which would've starting with our visit next week. After intense pressure from various groups, and not just from the Reds (which was fair anyway), the match will go ahead as scheduled. However Atletico will not be escaping punishment and a meeting will take place to decide what this will be, all as a Uefa statement explained:

'Following the decision of Uefa's control and disciplinary body to sanction Atletico Madrid for a series of incidents at the UEFA Champions League Group D match against Marseille on 1st October, the club has lodged an appeal against the decision and requested suspension of the sanctions to allow their match against Liverpool to be played in Madrid as originally scheduled.

'After immediate consideration of the request for suspension, and having considered in particular the organisational and logistical difficulties related to relocating the Atletico Madrid v Liverpool match to another venue at short notice, the chairman of the appeals body has decided to grant the request for suspension of the sanctions.

'Consequently, Uefa can confirm that the Champions League match between Atletico Madrid and Liverpool will take place as scheduled on 22nd October at the Vicente Calderon Stadium in Madrid.

'It should be emphasised that suspension of the sanctions does not mean that the decision of the control and disciplinary body has been set aside. The decision remains in force pending a full hearing of the appeal which will now take place on Friday, 31st October 31, 2008 at the Uefa Headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland.

'Uefa is, however, keen to stress that safety and security matters, including efficient cooperation with the police, are of the utmost priority and that there is a zero tolerance policy for incidents concerning racism in football. The match between Atletico Madrid and Liverpool will be under particular scrutiny and Uefa is ready to take immediate and further action if there are any reported incidents at this match.'

The trouble that it would've caused Reds fans at such short notice was taken into account as Uefa saw the light. The fans are such an important part of the game, yet we often seem to be the ones that are given less thought but not this time as a Uefa spokesman William Gaillard explained to Sky Sports News:

'We were concerned that if the game was moved it would have created tremendous problems for Liverpool fans.'

Rick Parry also voiced his delight at the rethink, on Liverpoolfc.tv he added:

'We're delighted at the decision because it means our fans can travel to the game as previously planned without additional expense or inconvenience.

'Liverpool are grateful for the help the FA have provided and pleased Uefa have listened to and acted on the arguments we put forward this week.'

This is definitely the right thing to have happened, Atletico should still be punished but to uphold such a ruling at such short notice would've been punishing us as much, arguably more, than them!
In other Reds news, further to the news that Fernando Torres would miss at least 10 days, he is now expected to be out for around 15. And this means that he will probably miss four matches, as opposed to the three originally thought.

Leave your thoughts below, or share them on this (or anything else) within the forum: click here

Click here to join in the debate on the club forum.