By Andrew Warshaw
October 18 – UEFA are drawing up emergency plans to include both Sion and Celtic in the Europa League group stages if they lose the ongoing dispute with the Swiss club.
Sion were expelled from the tournament on September 2 for fielding ineligible players in their play-off victory over the Scottish club and lost an appeal.
They have since won the backing of the Swiss civil courts in their fight to be reinstated and UEFA President Michel Platini (pictured) is due in court tomorrow to explain his organisation’s stance.
UEFA still believe they will win the case but are preparing for all eventualities.
They are keen for the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to have the final say but have submitted documents to a court in the Vaud region of Switzerland, which previously ruled in favour of Sion, examining a number of possible outcomes if Sion succeed.
The governing body will definitely not remove Celtic if CAS ultimately rules in favour of Sion, who signed six players in the summer in an apparent contravention of FIFA’s transfer embargo.
Instead, two of UEFA’s options centre on turning Celtic’s group into a five-team section, with a third allowing Sion the chance to progress to the last 32 via a play-off.
The tournament resumes on Thursday (October 20) with the third series of group matches.
A statement from UEFA read: “The first option assumes the cancellation of all previous games in Group I of the UEFA Europa League, and for a set of new games to be played within a group of five, following the rules of the former UEFA Cup group stage with teams playing against each other either at home or away.
“These matches could then be played between November 24 and December 22.
“The second option allows for the integration of FC Sion into Group I as an additional fifth team, but that the results and points of the games already played in the group remain.
“Eight additional matches would have to be played, starting at the end of November and finishing in February 2012.
“The other options, mainly valid in the case of a late reintegration, assume that FC Sion could be integrated directly into the round of 32, following a qualifying play-off round still to be defined.”
The statement went on: “Of course all these scenarios have one thing in common, and that is a strong impact on the other clubs in the competition.
“UEFA therefore underlines the fact that the other clubs may accept these possibilities only after a decision made by the Court Arbitration for Sport (CAS), as CAS is the only authority they have all accepted as competent to rule on sporting matters in the UEFA Europa League.
“As none of the suggested scenarios proposes a first matchday before November 24, UEFA believes there is a strong possibility of obtaining a decision based on the merits of the case in CAS, provided that FC Sion accepts the CAS accelerated procedure.”
So that there is as little confusion as possible, UEFA has invited the four clubs involved in the relevant group to their Nyon headquarters on Friday to discuss the various options.
A spokesman for Atlético de Madrid had said that their representatives along with those from Udinese, Rennes and Celtic will hear “an explanation of the case”.
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