By Andrew Warshaw
August 11 – Fenerbahce’s appeal against a two-year ban for match-fixing has thrown their Champions League playoff clash with Arsenal into confusion, with UEFA unwilling at this point to make a ruling on what has become a thorny issue for all parties.
The Istanbul club are scheduled to host Arsenal on August 20 or 21, with the return a week later, just before the group stage draw in Monaco on Aug 29.
The problem is that CAS says its final verdict will probably be delivered on August 28 – one day before the draw.
Arsenal fans are concerned that their side could be knocked out by opponents who are ultimately deemed to be cheats. But UEFA will not say whether Arsenal would be re-instated if Fenerbahce win the tie and lose their appeal, whether another Turkish team would take their place in the group stage or whether there would be a third option.
The match-fixing row goes back to 2011 when Fenerbahce won the Turkish league with a 4-3 win over Sivasspor in their final match. In July last year a Turkish court convicted 93 defendants, including Fenerbahce chairman Aziz Yildirim, in connection with the case. Yildirim was sentenced to more than six years in prison but was freed on bail pending appeal.
Privately, UEFA must be hoping for an Arsenal win to avoid a potentially awkward situation but there is precedent, again involving Fenerbahce, at an almost identical time.
In August 2011, the Turkish football federation withdrew Fenerbahce the day before the main draw as a result of their investigations into widespread match-fixing allegations that rocked the Turkish game at the time. Then, league runner-up Trabzonspor took their place in the Champions League group stage even though it had already been eliminated in the qualifying rounds.
Last season Besiktas finished behind Fenerbahce in third but just to complicate matters further, they too face the threat of expulsion from UEFA competition because of their alleged involvement in match-fixing.
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