Champions League re-draw: Explaining the mistakes that caused the Round of 16 redo

Simon Borg

•
Champions League re-draw: Explaining the mistakes that caused the Round of 16 redo image

In an unprecedented turn of events, UEFA was forced to redo the Champions League Round of 16 draw after errors surfaced in the original procedure. That forced the European governing body to void the results and order a redraw three hours later.

That first draw came up with eight matchups that included a Paris Saint-Germain vs. Manchester United matchup that would have seen Lionel Messi facing Cristiano Ronaldo. But that dream matchup was scratched due to errors that UEFA blamed on third-party software.

Teams from the same group and country are not permitted to face one another according to tournament rules, but the software apparently failed to adhere to them.

Following a technical problem with the software of an external service provider that instructs the officials as to which teams are eligible to play each other, a material error occurred in the draw for the UEFA Champions League Round of 16. - UEFA

MORE: Champions League re-draw winners & losers

The first error was seen on live TV when Manchester United came up in the draw as Villarreal's opponent. Except Man United shouldn't have been in the pot to begin with since the Red Devils played in the same group with Villarreal. When Man United's name was drawn, the officials realized the error and quickly pulled up another name: Manchester City.

But that mistake led to another. When it came time to selecting the Atletico Madrid opponent for the Round of 16, Manchester United was not one of the balls in the pot and the Red Devils were mistakenly excluded because they were "already drawn." But that was originally done in error.

The issues led Atletico Madrid to ask UEFA for an explanation "and a solution after the errors committed in the draw for the Champions League Round of 16." The announcement of the re-draw came minutes later.

One report claimed that Villarreal were also petitioning to have the draw redone.

The teams contacting UEFA about the draw reportedly also included Real Madrid, which wanted its draw result against Benfica to stand. Los Merengues clearly liked their original draw, and now have to settle for a much tougher matchup against PSG.

"I apologize that we have had to gather again," said UEFA Deputy General Secretary Giorgio Marchettin before the second draw took place. "There were issues caused by a malfunction that is run through an outside provider.

MORE: Why it was Real Madrid that was royally hosed by re-draw

"After the draw the external independent auditor informed UEFA that they could not guarantee that the problem with the IT system did not exist from the start. And as a result, the full draw needs to be redone. From now on, every suggestion made by the software will be checked in real time by UEFA officials to ensure accuracy. This may mean that the draw takes slightly longer, but I'm sure you will agree that it's the right thing to do."

These were the results of the re-draw:

Match Home team - 1st leg   Home team - 2nd leg
1 RB Salzburg vs Bayern Munich
2 Sporting CP vs Manchester City
3 Benfica vs Ajax
4 Chelsea vs LOSC Lille
5 Atletico Madrid vs Manchester United
6 Villarreal vs Juventus
7 Inter Milan vs Liverpool
8 PSG vs Real Madrid

Compare those matchups to the original draw, which was scratched:

Match Home team - 1st leg   Home team - 2nd leg
1 Benfica vs Real Madrid
2 Villarreal CF vs Manchester City
3 Atletico Madrid vs Bayern Munich
4 RB Salzburg vs Liverpool
5 Inter Milan vs Ajax
6 Sporting CP vs Juventus
7 Chelsea vs LOSC Lille
8 Paris Saint-Germain vs Manchester United

Between the pressure from the clubs and the pressure from the media, the re-draw was the right thing to do, although there will be some teams that won't be happy by the new opponents they've been dealt.

Simon Borg

Simon Borg Photo

Simon Borg is a senior editor at The Sporting News who has covered football/soccer for over a decade. A supporter of Italian club Parma Calcio from his years growing up in Europe, he was previously a long-time member of Major League Soccer's digital media team, as a multimedia content producer, on-air personality, and Editor-in-Chief. Based in New York City, Borg is multilingual and has covered the domestic and global scene for TSN since 2021.