By Andrew Warshaw
September 14 – The bitter legal dispute between FC Sion and UEFA has taken another remarkable twist with the Swiss club insisting UEFA President Michel Platini should be punished under Swiss law for refusing to reinstate them in the Europa League.
After Sion lost an appeal yesterday over their exclusion from the Europa League, which starts tomorrow, with Celtic confirmed as having taken their place, the club’s President, Christian Constantin, has come out saying that Platini should be arrested for disobeying a court order and possibly jailed.
Prior to the hearing before UEFA’s Appeals Committee, a regional Swiss court ruled that Sion should have been reinstated.
UEFA, however, did not abide by that ruling, choosing to uphold their original decision.
“If you have the judge’s decision which gives the order to UEFA that FC Sion can play, and UEFA fails to comply, then that means that the judge now has…there’s penal proceedings,” Constantin told Swiss television.
“Then, it’s the police [who] will go and find Mr Platini.
“Now, we’ve given Platini time to fix this, if he doesn’t fix it, then…there’s prison.”
Constantin did not say whether or not his team would travel to Madrid as planned in expectation of facing Atlético Madrid, Celtic’s first opponents.
Sion now has 10 days upon the written receipt of the UEFA verdict to take their complaint to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
Sion’s lawyer, Alexandre Zen-Ruffinen, told the Swiss press immediately after the verdict was made that he too believed UEFA should be punished under Swiss law.
“UEFA has confirmed the exclusion of the club,” Zen-Ruffinen said.
“The two protests were confirmed.
“It is an inexplicable verdict.
“They [UEFA] think they’re above the law and should face the consequences.
“I do not understand the disrespect of the Swiss constitution.”
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.
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 has become a vital sport-versus-law test case for European football.
Sion defender Jose Gonçalves (pictured) said the Sion players were disappointed by UEFA’s ruling.
“I am really sad that they are not accepting the decision of the law,” the former Hearts player told the BBC.
“I can’t understand.
“I think at the moment we are doing anything possible to get back into the group stages.
“Not only for this Thursday, but also maybe for the next game.
“I’m very disappointed because we followed the rules and we went to the courts here because the President and the club are sure we are right.
“UEFA are going against the law.
“I just can’t understand that and it is very difficult to accept this decision.
“No one can understand this in Switzerland.”
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