By Andrew Warshaw
December 15 – One of the most significant rulings since the Bosman affair went the way of UEFA today when FC Sion lost their fight to be allowed back into the Europa League.
After an often bitter feud between the Swiss club and European football’s governing body, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) upheld UEFA’s original decision to expel Sion from the competition for fielding six ineligible players.
Sion were also ordered to pay UEFA 40,000 Swiss Francs (£27,500/$42,500/€32,700) towards their legal costs.
However, the Swiss club immediately announced they intended to challenge the verdict and have 30 days to do so.
Sion had won a two-legged playoff win over Celtic 3-1 but the Scottish club were given Sion’s place in the Europa League group stage after making a formal complaint.
A CAS statement read: “The CAS first decided that it had jurisdiction to rule on the request for arbitration filed by UEFA on 26 September 2011.
“It then decided to confirm that OLA (Sion) should not be reintegrated in the UEFA Europa League 2011/2012, confirming indirectly the validity of the decision of the UEFA Appeals Body of 13 September 2011.”
The six players in question joined Sion in the close season when the club was serving a ban – lasting two transfer windows – for breaching the rules by signing Egyptian goalkeeper Essam El Hadary (pictured) in 2008.
Two previous civil court hearings ruled that Sion, who claim the sanction had already expired, should be allowed to register the players despite being in violation of the ban.
Had Sion won at the CAS, the outcome could have had severe implications for Group 1 of the Europa League which features Celtic, Rennes, Udinese and Atlético Madrid and was being completed tonight.
More pertinently, it would also have opened the floodgates for clubs and players to take any grievances to the civil courts if they felt they were getting a raw deal from footballing authorities.
Sion were helped in their case against UEFA by Jean-Louis Dupont, the lawyer who won the landmark Jean-Marc Bosman ruling in 1995.
And while this latest ruling effectively brings to an end a lengthy legal battle, Sion are not going down without a fight.
In response to the CAS statement, the club announced they are going to the Swiss supreme court.
“The verdict makes stronger our feeling of the servility of the CAS to the powerful football authorities,” said a club spokesman.
“It confirms our belief that now it becomes urgent to change the functioning of that court, which ultimately is not one.
“We are now taking the case in front of Swiss Federal Court [the CAS recognises its authority], and then the European Court.”
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