The English Football League has criticised Uefa for what it described as a lack of cooperation after a fixture clash forced three domestic matches to be rescheduled at short notice.
The disruption stems from a scheduling conflict on Merseyside. Everton and Wolves had been due to meet in the Carabao Cup third round on Tuesday, 9 September, with that date chosen specifically to avoid overlapping with a Liverpool home fixture in the same competition. Liverpool's own Carabao Cup tie against Tottenham had instead been pencilled in for 16 September after being selected for a Sky Sports broadcast slot.
Those plans were upended on Saturday when Uefa confirmed its Champions League calendar, revealing that Liverpool will host Atletico Madrid at Anfield on 9 September - directly clashing with Everton's scheduled home game against Wolves. Merseyside Police regulations do not permit both Liverpool and Everton to stage home matches on the same evening, leaving organisers with no choice but to rework the calendar.
With Wolves committed to Championship fixtures on both 13 and 20 September, and Everton in Premier League action on 12 and 19 September, the EFL determined that shifting the cup tie forward to 16 September was the most workable solution. That change also pushed Liverpool's meeting with Tottenham back a day earlier, to 15 September, while Wolves' Championship fixture against Portsmouth - originally due on 16 September - has now been pushed all the way to 20 October, after the first international break.
The EFL said it approached Uefa on Monday morning in hopes of shifting the Liverpool-Atletico Madrid date instead, but was told this was not feasible given the number of supporters who had already arranged travel from abroad. In a statement, the EFL said Uefa had shown an "unwillingness to cooperate," adding that the situation was especially frustrating given the League has already made several concessions in recent seasons to accommodate the growth of Uefa's club competitions - including splitting Carabao Cup third-round fixtures across two weeks and introducing draw restrictions to avoid clashes for clubs involved in European competition. The EFL apologised to supporters of the five clubs affected by the late changes.
Uefa pushed back against the criticism, insisting it makes every effort to accommodate reasonable scheduling requests. The governing body said no concerns were raised with it during the fixture-planning process, and that the clash only became apparent once the fixture lists were made public - by which point alterations were no longer practical. Uefa pointed to the large number of supporters who may have already booked international travel and accommodation for the Atletico Madrid trip, stating these arrangements