By Andrew Warshaw
November 4 – FC Sion President Christian Constantin has vowed to keep fighting to get his club reinstated in the group stage of the Europa League describing UEFA boss Michel Platini as a “king’s jester”.
Celtic were knocked out by Sion in the qualification round but granted re-entry when Sion were expelled for fielding ineligible players.
Sion have relentlessly pursued their case against UEFA and have won a number of civil court battles but UEFA says only the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has the final say.
“We will do everything to play in the Europa League,” Constantin told Spanish sports newspaper AS.
“We have not been eliminated from this competition and we are going to do everything in our power.
“We have qualified for this year’s competition and we want to play in it as next year we hope to qualify for the Champions League.”
Constantin was due to have face-to-face talks with UEFA today to try to resolve the impasse, which goes back to 2008.
UEFA have already come up with a contingency plans involving Sion playing matches against the other four teams in the group between early December and mid-February, just in case the CAS rules against Europe’s governing body.
“There is a club in the group, Celtic, who should not be there,” said Constantin.
“However I am not looking for Celtic to be expelled, as we were.
“I just want the right for us to play.”
And in a dig at Platini, he added: “Platini was a fine footballer but he was more adept with his feet than with his head.
“He’s king’s jester.
“I’m not going to say that we have to play the six [group] games.
“We could play two which would be the easiest option regarding dates.”
Regardless of the outcome, the Sion boss insisted there were no hard feelings as far as Celtic were concerned.
“Celtic have had the support of UEFA lawyers to attack us,” he said.
“But each club has to defend its interests.
“If Celtic have been given advantages, it’s not because they have requested them.
“Celtic have been lucky to be in this situation but we don’t want to take anything away from them on the pitch.”
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