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Football

30th Aug 2018

The Champions League draw organisors clearly had fun with the seating plan

Wayne Farry

champions league

The UEFA Champions League group stage draw is probably as close to purgatory as a living person can get

You are there, watching it on the television, as time stands still and occasionally flickers backwards. Any direction but forward.

Peter Schmeichel comes on stage with that grin he has and tells a joke, Pedro Pinto looks over at him with a face that says “Peter, you’ve done it again” and chuckles to himself. We are still no closer to the draw.

Between these moments of inane mindnumbing excruciation though there is a few gems.

The gem can be something as simple as catching a club official pick their nose or attempt to stay awake. The gem can sometimes be as simple as a seating plan.

That was the case with Thursday’s group stage draw, at which the organisors clearly wanted to stir a bit of shit. So what did they do? Oh, not much, just put Mo Salah sitting in front of Sergio Ramos, the man who ended the Egyptian’s participation in last year’s final.

Will Ramos get up at some point, pretend to trip and grab Salah’s arm? Only time will tell.