Tottenham awarded bye into League Cup fourth round after Leyton Orient cancellation

ByEurosport

Updated 25/09/2020 at 10:34 GMT

Tottenham have been gifted a bye into the League Cup fourth round. The club's tie against Leyton Orient had to be cancelled following positive Covid-19 tests at Brisbane Road and they will now face London rivals Chelsea in the next round of England's second cup competition.

Tottenham have been awarded a bye into the fourth round of the League Cup.

The game was due to go ahead on Tuesday but had to be postponed at very short notice after a number of Orient players and staff tested positive.

A statement posted by the EFL read: "In accordance with Carabao Cup rules, Tottenham Hotspur have been awarded with a bye to progress to Round Four of the Carabao Cup and will now play Chelsea on Tuesday 29 September.

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"The Round Three tie scheduled for Tuesday 22 September between Leyton Orient and Tottenham Hotspur could not take place following the issue by Waltham Forest Borough Council of an order preventing the match being played as planned. This followed a number of Leyton Orient players testing positive for COVID-19.

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"The EFL Board has determined that in line with Carabao Cup Rule 5.1, the club was unable to fulfil its obligations to complete the fixture by virtue of the Council’s order and shall therefore forfeit the tie."

Orient's stadium and training ground have been closed until further notice, with the club's League Two game against Walsall at the weekend also postponed.

Orient's chairman Nigel Travis is not happy about the decision and believes it penalises clubs testing carefully.

"If I was doing this again, I would not do the testing – this is an incentive not to test and that is bad for football and bad for health and safety," he told BBC Radio 5 Live.

"That’s why we can’t be punished over this, because people should be incentivised to take the test, especially when Premier League clubs with their resources give us the opportunity to have all our players tested.

"Flexibility is needed, cool heads are needed to sit around the table and find a solution but the answer is not to incentivise people not to test."

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