
Liverpool will make an official protest to UEFA following the prospect of having to play a Champions League tie in Israel.
The 2005 European champions will fight any attempt to make them play the second leg of the third qualifying round tie with Maccabi Haifa in Tel Aviv on August 22/23 as the conflict in Lebanon continues.
It is believed boss Rafael Benitez, after having news of the tie relayed to him at the club's Swiss training camp, has already told the Anfield hierarchy he does not want his team exposed to such dangers.
Liverpool's secretary Bryce Morrison - representing the club at the draw in Nyon - had lengthy discussions with UEFA, Haifa officials as well Liverpool's chief executive Rick Parry - who did not travel to Switzerland for the draw - over the problems of playing a match in Israel.
Currently UEFA allow Israel only to play club and international matches in the Tel Aviv area, which rules out Haifa - the country's third city which is coming under missile bombardment.
Liverpool do not even want to play the second leg in Cyprus, but instead have suggested a neutral country - possibly Holland - as the venue.
And they have already been told a final decision will be made by next Wednesday, despite Haifa's desire to retain home advantage and play in Tel Aviv.
Morrison said: "We will have to wait until I am able to get home to discuss the situation.
"Cyprus is not an option because of the amount of people who have come out of Lebanon who are there, a lot of Lebanese are there at the moment.
"We would much prefer that the game is played at a neutral ground, somewhere else.
"It is a situation that will have to be sorted out very quickly, there is not a huge time-scale. We are talking three weeks from now and that does not give us a lot of time.
"We will have to investigate the insurance and travel arrangements for such a game."
Liverpool, who usually charter a private jet from the local John Lennon international airport on Merseyside for their matches, also fear they will not find a company willing to provide a plane because of the insurance problems of flying to a war zone.
There would also be fears over insuring the players for such a trip, and Liverpool are also mindful of the problems for their fans travelling.
Les Lawson, spokesman for the Liverpool International Supporter's Club said: "Surely commonsense should prevail. I have heard a Haifa official saying the game can be played in Tel Aviv where everything is quiet.
"But that's nonsense. Liverpool should not be even considering going there, security cannot be ensured anywhere in Israel 100 per cent, and certainly not now.
"This is a dangerous, volatile situation in Israel and safety for everyone, the team, the officials, fans, referee everybody, should be the main consideration.
"Surely everybody is at risk. Liverpool would be a target from the moment they arrived. Nobody should even ask Liverpool to go to Israel at the moment."
0 comments:
Post a Comment