By Andrew Warshaw
January 18 – Swiss football, already tarnished by the FC Sion affair, has been plunged into yet more disarray after Neuchatel Xamax, a club whose honorary President is Sepp Blatter, were thrown out of the league and stripped of their licence less than a year after being taken over by the Chechen businessman Bulat Chagaev.
The Swiss Football League said in a statement that the ruling was taken because the club was suspected of using a falsified bank document as a financial guarantee last year.
“The Swiss Football League has taken away Neuchatel Xamax’s licence for participating in championships organised by the SFL,” the statement said.
“The Disciplinary Commission has reached the conclusion that the conditions for the licence are no longer met due to the non-presentation of financial guarantees.
“The Disciplinary Commission is also convinced that the banking guarantee from the Bank of America was not provided by the latter.”
Xamax, who have already had eight points deducted for irregular payment of social security contributions and players’ wages, have been a regular member of Switzerland’s 10-team top division.
Founded in 1970 by merging two separate clubs, they won the league twice in the late 1980s.
Blatter was a director of Xamax until he joined FIFA in 1975 and has retained close ties with the club.
Chagaev bought the club in May last year, saying he wanted to take them into the Champions League.
But, since then, he has sacked four coaches and the entire administrative staff.
The club, who have five days to appeal, are next scheduled to play on February 4 at home to Lausanne Sport when matches resume after the winter break.
Last month Sion were docked 36 points for ignoring a transfer ban and fielding six ineligible players in a fierce dispute that has involved both FIFA and UEFA and continues to play out in the Swiss courts.
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