UEFA Voids Champions League Last-16 Draw After Mistake With Man United's Ball

UEFA has to redo the entire last-16 draw after acknowledging the mistake involving Manchester United's ball

NYON, Switzerland (AP) — UEFA will have to redo the Champions League draw for the round of 16 after mistakingly placing Manchester United’s name into the wrong pot.

UEFA voided the initial results of Monday’s draw, which had created another matchup between Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi after Manchester United was paired with Paris Saint-Germain. However, United had initially been paired with Villarreal even though the English club’s name should not have been in that pot since the two advanced from the same group.

UEFA blamed the mishap on “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.”

“As a result of this, the draw has been declared void,” UEFA said in a statement published 90 minutes after the draw was done.

A new draw was set to take place at 3 p.m. local time (1400 GMT).

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 (@UEFA) December 13, 2021

The #UCLdraw will be redone after an error in the initial procedure! Man United’s ball being omitted from Atlético Madrid’s pool of potential opponents forces UEFA to scrap and start from scratch

(via @mjcritchley)pic.twitter.com/24MbSmdw33

— SI Soccer (@si_soccer) December 13, 2021

After United’s name was initially pulled out, Manchester City was then drawn to play Villarreal instead.

United’s name was then not put in the pot as a potential opponent for Atlético Madrid in the subsequent pairing, which saw Bayern Munich picked out.

PSG and Man United were later the final two teams picked.