Tottenham will consider legal action amid fury from inside the club at UEFA’s decision to effectively dump them out of European football this season.

UEFA have ruled that Spurs must forfeit their European Conference League tie against Rennes, that was postponed earlier this month due to a Covid outbreak at the north London club, meaning the Premier League have crashed out of the competition.

Last week Antonio Conte said it would be unfair if his team were to forfeit the game given the circumstances surrounding the postponement on December 9.

And on Monday, Spurs officials were left angered by the decision of European football’s governing body to award a 3-0 win to Rennes – who had been unhappy with the fact that Tottenham had announced the game was off when they had already arrived in London – given the mitigating circumstances.

The game was called off under Government advice, while the club were also forced to close down their training centre as Covid spread among staff.

Under UEFA rules, the game is required to be played by December 31 with Spurs desperate to reschedule the fixture knowing a cancellation of the game would cost them their place in the competition.

Indeed, Sportsmail revealed earlier that Spurs even offered to play the game against Rennes today – just 24 hours after their clash against Liverpool.

Spurs also saw a request from the Premier League to postpone their scheduled clash against Leicester last Thursday in order to play the game against Rennes rejected, only for the game to be called off due to a Covid outbreak within Brendan Rodgers’ squad.

Spurs were also willing to give up home advantage and play the game that was due to take place at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in France.

But neither team could agree on a date to reschedule the fixture and UEFA have now confirmed their decision to inflict a 3-0 lose on Spurs.

As it stands, Tottenham do not intend to appeal the decision. While it is understood they cannot launch an appeal to UEFA, they could consider challenging the ruling with the Court of Arbitration for Sport – but there is a reluctance to do so.

However, Sportsmail understands they will seek legal action over other factors linked to their exit from European football, including loss of revenue.

It remains to be seen whether Spurs follow through with actioning legal proceedings, but the fact they are contemplating the possibility of doing so underlines their huge frustration at UEFA’s ruling.

A Tottenham Hotspur spokesperson said: ‘We are disappointed by the ruling of the UEFA Appeals Body and the refusal to allow more time for the match to be rescheduled. We have to accept this ruling, however, and our focus now turns to the competitions we remain in.’

As a result of the decision, Rennes and Vitesse Arnhem progress to the knockout stages of the inaugural European Conference League.

In a statement of their own, Vitesse Arnhem, who qualified at Tottenham’s expense, said: ‘The past 11 days were very bizarre. This is a very sad situation for Spurs and very unpleasant from a sporting point of view, the interest of both teams were very big.

‘We are happy that confirmation has come but it was a strange end of the group phase. In theory there could be an appeal but according to the first signals that will not happen.’

Conte maintained last week: ‘We want to play the game. Tottenham deserves to play the game, to play the last game of this group.

‘It’s a really strange situation because we didn’t play through no fault of our own but because of a big problem and because the Government decided to close our training ground, to stop our training session for three days.’

‘We deserve to play this game and to try to have a chance to go to the next round. It’s not fair we have to pay for a situation that isn’t our fault. I understand if we did something wrong but in this way, for the club, the players, the staff, it’s very difficult to understand what is happening.’

Conte’s side are three games behind some of their rivals after having games against Leicester and Brighton postponed due to Covid cases.

They returned to action on Sunday at home against Liverpool, where they ended a thrilling 90 minutes with a point after a 2-2 draw.