By Andrew Warshaw
October 7 – UEFA’s top brass are preparing to take on the Swiss civil courts following a fresh court order that FC Sion should be readmitted to the Europa League.
Sion were thrown out for fielding six players deemed ineligible and were replaced by Celtic who have already played two matches.
But a Swiss court close to where UEFA are based has again demanded that the club be put back into the competition even though it is halfway through the group stage.
“We will explain to them the sporting reasons and the sporting justice reasons why Sion should not be readmitted to the competition,” UEFA general secretary Gianni Infantino (pictured) told reporters, referring to himself and UEFA President Michel Platini.
UEFA has already made representations to the court but Sion have gained the upper hand legally in what has come down to straight fight between legal and sporting bodies.
“After hearing both parties, the Civil Court of the Canton of Vaud has again repudiated UEFA and ruled in favour of FC Sion,” a club statement said.
“The order is again made against UEFA to reinstate the Sion team in Group I of the Europa League immediately.
“The decision is immediately enforceable.
“In addition, UEFA will pay a fine of 1,000 Swiss francs (£700/$1,086/€814) for each day of non-performance of the judge’s order.”
Sion were originally banned by FIFA from signing players for two transfer periods after inducing Egyptian goalkeeper Essam El-Hadary to break his contract and join them in 2008.
The club argues the ban ended this summer and as a result made six new signings but FIFA said it was still in force, prompting a complex battle between all parties.
Earlier this week, the club dropped their appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) against the Swiss league after the league backed down and the six players who were refused registration were given the go-ahead to play domestically.
The heat has now been turned back on to FIFA, UEFA and the Swiss football authorities over the future of the so-called “Sion Six” – Mario Mutsch, Gabri, Pascal Feindouno (pictured left), José Gonçalves, Billy Ketkeophomphone and Stefan Glarner.
Infantino insists UEFA will stand firm.
“Everyone knows the rules,” he declared.
“At the end of the day, the case is pretty clear.
“This has happened many times in the past.
“If the case goes against us, it’s also against CAS, the Swiss League and FIFA.
“We have rules, our disciplinary bodies have to apply the rules.
“For us this is such an important question it needs to be decided on the merits of the case.
“The [civil court] provision doesn’t take into account all the details of the case.
“We are very happy to go to the prosecutor to explain to him our decision.
“The dates will be in the second half of October.
“We are not charged with anything, we are just providing information and we are very happy to go and explain how our instances work.
“If CAS decides that our disciplinary bodies were wrong in admitting Celtic and should have admitted Sion and we should do so, then we would respect their decision.”
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