UEFA have opened disciplinary proceedings against Manchester United after their Champions League clash with Valencia kicked off five minutes late on Tuesday.
United arrived late for last night’s match at Old Trafford after their team coach was delayed in traffic on its way to the stadium from the Lowry Hotel in Manchester city centre.
Jose Mourinho’s side arrived at the ground at 7.16pm, just 44 minutes before kick off, despite leaving their city centre hotel at 6pm.
The club were forced to delay the start of the match by five minutes as a consequence, with UEFA agreeing that the game could be pushed back to an 8.05pm kickoff to allow them more time to prepare.
“Due to the Manchester United team bus being delayed by heavy traffic en route to the stadium, the Uefa delegate, in conjunction with the referee and teams, has decided to delay the start of the match by five minutes,” a UEFA statement read.
But United have now been charged for breaking two UEFA rules, one for arriving late and another for the late kick-off as the game actually kicked off later than the 8.05pm time agreed.
A statement released by European football’s governing body declares: “UEFA has opened disciplinary proceedings against Manchester United over the ‘late team arrival’ and ‘late kick-off’ for the Champions League match against Valencia.”
UEFA charge #ManUtd over late arrival and kick-off. Is it a bit harsh to charge Valencia too? pic.twitter.com/jj56paYtFt
— Martyn Ziegler (@martynziegler) October 3, 2018
Apparently both Man U and Valencia given new kick off time after late arrival of the bus but both teams still contrived to be late out of the dressing rooms.
— Martyn Ziegler (@martynziegler) October 3, 2018
Valencia have also been charged for a kit infringement as their substitutes wore neck warmers with the manufacturers’ logo visible.
United’s poor form continued as they were held to a 0-0 draw by their Spanish opposition, with fans booing the team at the final whistle.
Speaking after the game, Mourinho blamed their late arrival on the Greater Manchester Police for not giving the team coach a police escort to the ground.
“We left the hotel at six o’clock, hoping that 30 minutes would be enough,” Mourinho said. “Which normally is but this time the police refused to do an escort so we come by ourselves. And we took from the Lowry Hotel, 75 minutes.
“And Uefa were nice, the referee was nice to allow us to start the game five minutes later because we at least need half an hour to be prepared but was not a problem with the club organisation.
“We anticipate everything that it could be dangerous, in the sense of arriving late but we were informed the police refused an escort.”
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