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UEFA has confirmed that new signings will not able to play in the Champions League when it restart later this season.
On Wednesday, Europe’s governing body confirmed plans to complete this year’s event with a knock-out tournament to be staged in Lisbon in August for the last eight teams in the competition.
And, with some round of 16 ties still be to be completed. They have also issued guidelines about the composition of squads, meaning that new signings will not be eligible to play in the remaining ties this season.
It means, for example that Hakim Ziyech and Timo Werner – whose signing was confirmed on Thursday, will not be able to play in the second leg of their match against Bayern Munich. Arguably, that is academic anyway, as the Germans hold a 3-0 advantage from the first leg at Stamford Bridge.
The newly crowned Bundesliga champions have agreed to sign Tanguy Louassi from PSG, but the centre-half will not able to play for them in that match either.
Andy is an exiled English football fan living in Cyprus. He loves all sports but football is his abiding passion, and he still has dreams every now and then about scoring the winning goal in a Wembley Cup Final, even though his playing days are long gone. He follows most major leagues, across Europe at least, and has a favoured team in each. When he’s not watching, listening, reading or downloading podcasts about football, he spend his time worrying about his beloved Arsenal.