Uefa bans Red Star, Turkish clubs from Europe

[ian1964 10,372]

Date:

9 June 2014

 

Serbian football club Red Star Belgrade has been banned from participating in the Uefa Champions League next season, while two Turkish clubs have also been barred from competing in the Europa League.

 

Uefa, football’s European governing body, confirmed that Red Star would be blocked from playing in the Champions League after breaching several licensing and Financial Fair Play rules.

 

The club won the 1991 European Cup – the precursor to the Champions League – but lost its best players in the wake of the break-up of Yugoslavia in the same year and has struggled for consistency on and off the pitch since then.

 

“My first reaction is that Uefa has shown no understanding for our situation because this is an accumulated debt for which the club's present leadership is not responsible,” Red Star’s vice-president, Ivica Toncev, said. “It was always going to be an uphill battle but we will exercise our right to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.”

 

The club had been due to enter the 2014-15 Champions League in the second qualifying round. According to the Reuters news agency, last week several Red Star players complained that their wages were late. The club has reported debts totalling more than €50m ($68m).

 

Uefa will also investigate the FSS, the sport’s governing body in Serbia, for giving Red Star a licence to play in the Champions League despite being aware that the club had violated financial rules. “Red Star's position was barely acceptable, but we also assessed that playing in Europe's top-tier competition was the fast track to the club's recovery,” the FSS said. “We are surprised by Uefa's course of action against the FSS and we maintain that kicking Red Star out of Europe is a bitter blow to Serbian football as a whole.”

 

Uefa also announced that Turkish clubs Sivasspor and Eskisehirspor have been banned from participating in the 2014-15 Europa League due to their involvement in a domestic match-fixing scandal relating to the conclusion of the 2010-11 season. Sivasspor would have entered the Europa League at the third qualifying round. Turkish Cup runner-up Eskisehirspor would have entered at the second qualifying round.

 

http://www.sportbusiness.com/sport-news/uefa-bans-red-star-turkish-clubs-europe

[Gazza_8 233]

Corrupt.

 

That's all.

[RANGERRAB 3,252]

Wonder when UEFA will get round to banning clubs who do dodgy land deals with their local council and then use this land as security to get soft loans using political connections from a basket case bank