Manchester City vs Real Madrid Champions League game not at risk
According to the UK's Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, the new travel and quarantine restrictions from those arriving from Spain excludes sporting events.
The Champions League is almost upon us and one of the most eye-catching fixtures is that between Manchester City and Real Madrid. The Last 16 second leg sees Zinedine Zidane take his squad to Etihad Stadium with the daunting task of overturning a 1-2 home deficit, although the new coronavirus restrictions placed on arrivals from Spain had raised some doubts over the match.
City-Madrid gets UK green light
The game is all set for 7 August but on Saturday evening there was some concerns that the game may have to move to a neutral venue or that Zidane and co would have to quarantine for two weeks before the game could be played in Manchester.
However, on Sunday, via various media outlets, the UK government had confirmed that the game could go ahead as planned.
The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) told Sky Sports News that ‘the current guidelines remain in place for enabling selected elite international sporting events to take place this summer.’
Those guidelines stipulate that "exempted individuals will live and work in controlled ‘bubbled’ environments behind closed doors," and that this applies to "sports stars, event officials, coaches, medics, mechanics and incoming members of the media."
UEFA had already given the green light to the outstanding second legs being played at the appropriate home ground rather than a suggested neutral venue. European football’s governing body have, though, maintained the right to change this, stating that "UEFA will continue to monitor the situation and reserves the right to reassign any such matches to the venues of the final tournament of the relevant competition should new events occur that would make it impossible to play one or more matches at the original venues.”
The quarter-finals already confirmed are Atalanta vs Paris Saint-Germain (12 August) and RB Leipzig vs Atletico Madrid (13 August). Remaining clashes, as well as City-Madrid are: Juventus vs Lyon (7 August), Barcelona vs Napoli (8 August) and Bayern Munich vs Chelsea (8 August).