Arsenal and City will play during the Champions League! How did UEFA allow it?

The most important match in the championship race.

The Champions League is back – now Tuesdays and Wednesdays belong to it again. But not today. Because the central match of the day is not Chelsea against Borussia and not even Brugge against Benfica. In England, the main contenders for the championship will play – Arsenal will host Man City.

Why did this overlay happen? And how did UEFA allow a match with such a poster to be held on the same day as the Champions League? We understand.

UEFA made concessions: earlier matches were postponed due to the death of the Queen and the Europa League

Usually, UEFA is strongly opposed to the matches of home championships being played during European competitions. But here the situation is special – and the football officials made reciprocal concessions to the English clubs.

Arsenal and City were originally scheduled to play on Wednesday 19 October.

But everything shifted due to the death of Elizabeth II. Immediately after the news of the death of the queen, the game of Arsenal and PSV in the Europa League was postponed – it was scheduled for September 15, just on the dates when everyone in London was preparing for the funeral.

Later it turned out that there was nowhere to transfer the Europa League match – there are practically no free slots before the start of the World Cup. The Premier League made concessions: the match between Arsenal and PSV was set for October 20 – the day after the scheduled game with City.

It is clear that the most important meeting of the fall in the Premier League also had to be postponed – already for the period after the World Cup. Finding a free date for the match is increasingly difficult, so UEFA made a return concession to the Premier League – and allowed the top match to be played on the same day as the Champions League.

So far, it seems that Arsenal have suffered the most from this. In the fall, Arteta’s side came into the game against the defending champions with a four-match Premier League winning streak, beating Brentford, Tottenham, Liverpool and Leeds. Then Gabi Jesus was healthy.

Now Arsenal cannot win in three matches in a row, including being knocked out of the FA Cup by Man City. And all in order to beat PSV in the Europa League 1-0 in the fall in an insignificant match – both teams eventually left the group with a margin.

And Real Madrid is still playing today. He just got back from the Club World Cup

Today there is also a La Liga match – Real Madrid will play with Elche. The capital club also has a good reason.

The game against Elche is from the 21st round, which was played last weekend. But Real Madrid at that time went to Morocco for the Club World Cup. La Liga had two options for postponing the league game: February 15 and March 8. The league waited for the results of the draw for the semi-finals of the Copa del Rey and set the match against Elche for February.

Finding free dates for all the rescheduled games is becoming increasingly difficult – the football schedule is overloaded. Many coaches complain about this: for example, Jurgen Klopp and Pep Guardiola. But FIFA also planned to launch a new club World Cup format from 2025, and UEFA to reformat the Champions League.