By Andrew Warshaw
September 25 – UEFA President Michel Platini (pictured right) wants the European Union to protect his organisation against civil court cases brought by clubs in the wake of the FC Sion affair.
According to the Swiss club, Platini has been summoned to appear in court to answer claims that Sion were unfairly expelled from the Europa League.
Both Platini and UEFA general secretary Gianni Infantino will have to testify at a hearing called by a Swiss criminal prosecutor, probably in mid-October, to explain why they refused to reinstate Sion in arguably the most significant sports-versus-law case since the Bosman ruling of the 1990s.
Sion President Christian Constantin filed a criminal complaint in UEFA’s home Canton of Vaud after UEFA ignored a civil court ruling that his club should not have been replaced by Celtic in the Europa League group stage.
Platini feels other teams could follow suit if excluded from European competition.
“I know the clubs will take us to court,” he told La Gazzetta dello Sport.
“It’s the first thing they will do.
“That’s why I went to [EC President José Manuel] Barroso [pictured left] and asked him for judicial protection.
“I told him: ‘If you believe in what I’m doing for football, then you have to protect me, otherwise it’s going to be difficult.’
“What will happen if an excluded club sues for 10 million [Euros] in compensation and there are 10 teams excluded?
“Will UEFA have to close?
“He [Barroso] told me he would deal with it.”
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