Tottenham may be forced to withdraw from a little-known UEFA tournament that they qualified for by winning the Europa League. The north Londoners clinched their first major trophy in 17 years by defeating Manchester United in last month's final. As a result, they will face Champions League winners PSG in the UEFA Super Cup.
The match, which pits the winners of UEFA's two main competitions against each other, will take place at Udinese's stadium in August. Tottenham are guaranteed to play in the Super Cup but their participation in a lesser-known tournament is under threat. By winning the Europa League, they also qualified for the UEFA–CONMEBOL Club Challenge.
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The revamped competition was launched two years ago as a follow-up to the previous Supercopa Euroamericana. It sees the Europa League winners take on the champions of its South American equivalent, the Copa Sudamericana.
This year's winners were Argentine side Racing Club, who are reportedly keen to set up a meeting with Tottenham. However, those in power at UEFA believe it will be difficult to find a slot in which to fit the game, according to football.london.
Tottenham have already scheduled a number of pre-season friendlies, which could make it hard to squeeze in a match against Racing Club. They will face bitter rivals Arsenal at the end of July before travelling to South Korea for a friendly against Newcastle.
From there, they will head to Germany where they will entertain Bayern Munich for the third year in a row. The lack of available space in Tottenham's schedule means they might have to withdraw from the Club Challenge as a result.
They will have a new manager in the dugout for pre-season after Ange Postecoglou was relieved of his duties last week. Thomas Frank is thought to be in advanced talks to take over, with a deal expected to be wrapped up in the coming days.
According to Fabrizio Romano, terms have been agreed with the Dane after a brief period of negotiations. Tottenham are reportedly willing to pay the full value of his release clause, which stands at around £10million.
Frank will be hoping to rectify Tottenham's fortunes in the Premier League after their worst season in recent memory. They finished one place above the relegation zone, losing 22 of their 38 games and winning just 11 times.