Champions League: What went wrong with the round of 16 draw?

UEFA was forced to invalidate the Champions League round of 16 draw on Monday. Here’s what went wrong. 

UEFA were forced to redraw the Champions League round of 16 draw after Manchester United was mistakenly left out for part of it, just one in a series of blunders that resulted in the English club having to play Paris Saint-Germain.

While the prospect of a Lionel Messi versus Cristiano Ronaldo contest was appealing to most, UEFA quickly released a statement explaining what had gone wrong and the need to do the draw over again.

“Following a technical problem with the software of an external service provider that instructs the officials as to which teams are eligible to play each other, a material error occurred in the draw for the UEFA Champions League Round of 16,” UEFA said in a statement. “As a result of this, the draw has been declared void and will be entirely redone at 15:00 CET [9 a.m. ET].”

Champions League Draw: What went wrong?

CBS Sports reported that Manchester United had incorrectly been placed in the draw against Villarreal, who they could not face having already played them in Group F.

But the confusion did not end there. The ball with Manchester United in it was then left out of those teams that could have been drawn to play Atletico Madrid. As a result of these actions, the draw was considered void.

A new draw saw Manchester United drawn against Atletico Madrid in the round of 16 that starts up in February after the tournament observes its usual winter break.