Tottenham could miss out on another trophy next season with big South American play-off

You wait 17 years for an open-topped bus in Tottenham and then potentially three come at once with spin-off matches from the Europa League triumph.

led his Spurs players to their first European trophy in 41 years as they beat Manchester United in Bilbao. That achievement not only unlocked Champions League qualification for next season for the north London side but it also handed them a spot in the UEFA Super Cup in Udine in August where will take on either PSG or Inter after those two teams meet to decide this weekend's Champions League final.

There was previously another potential cup to be won in the past with the UEFA-CONMEBOL Club Challenge in the fixture calendar. The competition was launched in 2023 for the Europa League and Sudamericana winners to play each other as part of a renewed partnership between UEFA and CONMEBOL.

READ MORE:

READ MORE:

The game that year saw Sevilla triumph against Ecuador's Independiente del Valle on penalties after a 1-1 draw in the Estadio Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán in Seville on July 19.

The event was a successor to the Supercopa Euroamericana, which ran in 2015 and 2016, with Sevilla losing to River Plate and then beating Santa Fe the next year in matches that were technically classified as friendlies. The annual game was cancelled the following year though following the crash that killed most of the Chapecoense squad on their way to the first leg of the 2016 Copa Sudamericana finals.

The current Sudamericana champions are Argentinean side Racing Club, who ended their own 36-year wait for a continental trophy, and reports in that country suggest their club president Diego Milito, the former Inter striker, has opened talks over reviving the UEFA-CONMEBOL Club Challenge to take on Tottenham, with a game in Argentina or the United States mooted.

The main problem, and why such a fixture is believed to be unlikely at this point according to those within UEFA, is finding the time in the packed calendar - with new expanded UEFA competitions - and that is the reason why the UEFA-CONMEBOL Club Challenge did not take place last year because there was no room for a game between Atalanta and Ecuador's Liga de Quito.

All eyes are on whether Racing can get anywhere with their proposals for a game against Tottenham but time and the schedule does not appear to be on their side.