UEFA throw out Sion's appeal but the battle goes on

By Andrew Warshaw

September 13 – FC Sion’s attempt to be reinstated in this season’s Europa League was thrown out by UEFA today as the legal battle between the sporting authorities and the Swiss civil courts intensified.

The Swiss club were removed from the competition on September 2 after they were adjudged to have fielded ineligible players in the play-off qualifying round against Celtic, a tie they won 3-1 on aggregate.

The Scots were instead awarded the place in a group that includes Atlético Madrid, Rennes and Udinese and which kicks off on Thursday (September 15).

Sion elected to pursue the matter through the civil courts, won their case for fielding the new players domestically, then appealed when UEFA refused to reinstate them in the Europa League in what is fast becoming a watershed case for European football.

Today’s ruling means Celtic will go ahead with their fixture against Atlético in Madrid but the Swiss side are not lying down and seem certain to take their case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

To make matters even more complicated, just before UEFA threw out Sion’s appeal, a fresh civil court ruling said they should be allowed back into the Europa League.

In order to heap embarrassment on UEFA, they may anyway decide to travel to Spain on Thursday regardless of their appeal being rejected.

A statement on Sion’s official website read: “The civil court has this morning ordered UEFA to admit FC Sion as a participant in the 2011-12 Europa League and to take all the measures necessary to include them in Group I of the UEFA Europa League for which FC Sion have qualified.

“The Canton de Vaud Tribune also orders UEFA to consider the players Stefan Glarner, Billy Ketkeophomphone, Mario Mutsch, Pascal Feindouno, José Gonçalves and Gabri as eligible as FC Sion players and to admit them in the 2011-12 UEFA Europa League.

“The order has been declared immediately binding.”

In its own statement, UEFA said its appeals body “decided to reject the appeal lodged by Sion” saying the club had 10 days to take the matter to the CAS.

Seemingly dismissing the civil court ruling, UEFA said it would issue a statement on that “at a later stage.”

The complex case goes back to when Sion were handed a transfer embargo for breaching rules over the signing of Essam El-Hadary (pictured right), an Egyptian goalkeeper, three years ago.

El- Hadary’s former club Al Ahly maintained he was still under contract to them.

Christian Constantin (pictured left), the controversial Sion President, has vowed to fight UEFA all the way, even if the Europa League starts without his side.

“It’s not finished,” he said last week.

“You can start the competition and then a judge might say stop.”

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