By Andrew Warshaw
August 15 – Legia Warsaw are to take their Champions League expulsion to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) as their usually mild-mannered coach Henning Berg accused UEFA of imposing a jail sentence-like penalty for a minor offense and ignoring their own policy over fair play.
Berg hit out after the Polish side lost their appeal against being thrown out of the competition for fielding an ineligible player despite thrashing Celtic 6-1 on aggregate in the recent round of qualifiers.
Legia’s pursuit of a reprieve will have to be heard quickly with CAS fast-tracking the case since re-instated Celtic are due to face Maribor of Slovenia in the final playoff round next Wednesday, 24 hours before Legia, consigned to the Europa League, are due to meet Aktobe in Khazakstan.
The Polish champions acknowledge that a club official was responsible for the registration error but thought Bartosz Bereszynski had served his three-game ban, only to discover that by not registering the midfielder for the previous round against St Patrick’s Athletic his suspension still stood for the second-leg defeat of the Scottish champions.
There seems little chance of CAS considering the case in time but Berg said the original ruling was ludicrously harsh considering the player featured only in the final four minutes of a tie Legia won comfortably.
“This is the equivalent of forgetting to pay the electricity bill and being sentenced to 20 years behind bars,” the Norwegian charged. “How many errors have been committed in recent years by football clubs yet we do not find a case where the punishment has been so severe.
“If people do not see that and think UEFA’s decision is right from a human and a sporting point of view it is a tragedy. It is easy to talk about fair play but when it comes to such a situation these words must be reflected in deeds.”
Berg also revealed, according to reports, that he crossed swords with Celtic manager Ronny Deila after suggesting a one-off play-off match as a compromise. “I called Ronny. It was a powerful conversation.”
“This little technical mistake … has taken away our chance of getting into the Champions League which would have been a dream for this club and these players who have worked so hard for us to get to this position.
“We were not trying to hide anything. This has been open and this is just a little small technical mistake in the administration and the consequences for us now is very, very difficult to take.”
Berg called on UEFA to show greater consistency.
“In 2010 Debrecen from Hungary also used a player and their case was not even as strong as ours and UEFA told them because they acted in good faith the result stood and it was not affected. European football should be about fair competition and fair play. I think this goes against every intention of fair play and fair competition.”
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