Why Tottenham trio made to wait for Europa League medals as UEFA apologise

Yahoo

22-05-2025

Heung-min Son was among three Tottenham players not to receive a medal immediately after the Europa League final.
Spurs beat Manchester United 1-0 in Bilbao thanks to Brennan Johnson's 42nd-minute winner.
The Spurs club captain, alongside skipper on the night Cristian Romero and midfielder Rodrigo Bentancur, did not have medals around their necks on the pitch as it transpired that UEFA had run out.
It meant that when it came to lifting the trophy - Spurs' first since 2008 and first European silverware for 41 years - the trio were the only players to be medal-less.
They did eventually receive their own personal awards back in the dressing room, with more medals held back to be handed out to members of the backroom staff afterwards.
It was revealed that UEFA had planned for 30 medals to be handed out in the on-pitch ceremony, and Spurs boss Ange Postecoglou was the first to receive one from president Aleksander Ceferin.
James Maddison, Lucas Bergvall, and Timo Werner - all ruled out of the final through injury - were awarded their medals, but that left Son, Romero, and Bentancur - all of whom played a part in Bilbao - without their own.
Will Lankshear, who spent the second half of the season on loan at Championship side West Brom, received a medal ahead of the three players as well.
The incident prompted UEFA to release a statement admitting that more Tottenham team members had participated in the ceremony than anticipated.
"To our great displeasure, we did not have enough medals available on stage during the trophy ceremony presentation due to an unexpected discrepancy in the player count, as more team members - including injured players - participated in the ceremony than initially anticipated," Uefa said.
"The missing medals were promptly delivered to the winning team in the dressing room, along with our sincerest apologies for the oversight."
UEFA's rules say that both sides - winners and losers - are given 50 medals each, with it then being up to the club as to how those medals are handed out amongst playing and backroom staff.