Uefa has offered its “sincerest apologies” after a clutch of Tottenham players were left without Europa League medals as Spurs claimed their first trophy in 17 years, much to the embarrassment of Aleksander Ceferin, the governing body’s president.
Ceferin appeared to be caught by surprise at the trophy ceremony when the medals ran out before all of Ange Postecoglou’s players had received theirs following Wednesday night’s 1-0 triumph over Manchester United in Bilbao. The final three Tottenham players to be congratulated by Ceferin – Cristian Romero, Son Heung-min, who lifted the trophy in front of his teammates, and Rodrigo Bentancur – were left empty-handed. However, their injured teammates, James Maddison and Timo Werner, dressed in full kit, as well as Dejan Kulusevski, who was on crutches, all celebrated with medals hanging around their necks.
Uefa said in a statement: “To our great displeasure, we did not have enough medals available on stage during the trophy ceremony presentation due to an unexpected discrepancy in the player count, as more team members – including injured players – participated in the ceremony than initially anticipated. The missing medals were promptly delivered to the winning team in the dressing room, along with our sincerest apologies for the oversight.”
The European governing body said the clubs had been informed that only 30 medals would be presented on stage to each club. It said 20 further medals were given to the club after the ceremony for distribution to players and staff. To further Uefa’s discomfort, all eight officials received their medals.
Tottenham will celebrate their Europa League success with an open-top bus parade around the streets of north London on Friday night. Plans have now been unveiled for a victory parade, which is set to begin around 5.30pm on Friday at Fore Street in Edmonton Green, travelling down the High Road past Tottenham Hotspur Stadium before it concludes in the stadium’s service yard on Northumberland Park.
The parade will last approximately “between 60 and 90 minutes”, with a staging area to be erected outside the stadium on Paxton Terrace to host the players and coaching staff for a presentation of the trophy to fans.
