No investigation of Liverpool’s claim of “false positive”, says English Football League

London, Jan 11 (IANS) The English Football League (EFL) will not be investigating the circumstances of the postponement of last week’s Carabao Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Arsenal, despite head coach Jurgen Klopp admitting a number of “false positive” Covid-19 tests.

An EFL statement regarding last week’s postponement said, “Having now fully reviewed the circumstances involved, the league has accepted Liverpool’s request after determining, albeit reluctantly, that a postponement was the only option as the club looks to mitigate against the further risk of infection amongst its squad and staff alongside ensuring public health was protected by not travelling from Liverpool to London.”

Last Thursday’s tie was due to take place at the Emirates Stadium but the re-arrangement means the first leg will now take place at Anfield on January 13.

The first leg of the match against Arsenal, scheduled to have taken place on January 6, was called off after Liverpool sent a request to the EFL to have the game postponed.

Liverpool claimed that they could not get a team out, even when youth players were taken into consideration, due to a Covid outbreak affecting players and staff. But just three days later, on Sunday, manager Klopp admitted that a clutch of “false positives” had been recorded.

Jurgen Klopp admitted on Sunday that Liverpool had a number of “false positives” in the build-up to their Carabao Cup tie with Arsenal

Speaking after Liverpool’s win over League One Shrewsbury in the FA Cup, Klopp said: “We thought we had a proper outbreak last week and it showed up we had a lot of false positives actually.

“But still the rules are like they are and so all these players who are false positive couldn’t play today or we decided not to play them for whatever. So the only real positive case from the team was Trent Alexander-Arnold and all the rest were false positives.”

However, the EFL have confirmed that they are satisfied that Liverpool had legitimate grounds for a delay at the time of their appeal, that they provided all the necessary evidence, and that an investigation will not be taking place.

—IANS

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