European soccer’s governing body was forced to void its initial draw for the Champions League round of 16 on Monday after making a “material error” over which teams are eligible to play one another in the knockout round’s first stage.
The errant draw initially paired Manchester United of the English Premier League with Villareal of Spain even though the teams shared a group in the previous round and thus were ineligible to play each other in the round of 16. Manchester United then was drawn to face Paris Saint-Germain, which would have given the world another tantalizing matchup between Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, but UEFA voided the draw about 90 minutes after it happened, blaming the errors on “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.”
