By Andrew Warshaw
September 2 – Legia Warsaw are in trouble again with UEFA, this time for their fans provocatively maintaining their protest against being kicked out of the Champions League for accidentally fielding an ineligible player for a mere couple of minutes at the end of a tie they had already won handsomely.
The Polish club have been charged over a banner criticising their disputed exit from the competition following the third qualifying round despite thrashing Celtic 6-1 on aggregate. Celtic took on Maribor instead in the final playoff round – and were promptly dumped out by the Slovenians.
Legia have been demoted by UEFA into the Europa League for the administrative error that led to their severe sanction and in protest last week fans displayed a large image of a pig imposed on a UEFA badge and the slogan ‘Because Football Doesn’t Matter, Money Does.’
The giant banner, surrounded by flares which may also be taken account of by UEFA’s disciplinary panel, was shown before the Europa League playoff victory against Aktobe of Kazakhstan. Fresh sanctions could now be applied ahead of the start of Legia’s Europa League group programme at home to Lokeren on September 18.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport, which denied Legia’s urgent appeal to be reinstated in the Champions League, is nevertheless considering the club’s request for compensation from UEFA for lost earnings.
But the Poles have now fallen foul of the law for the third time in four seasons. UEFA sanctioned fans’ racist behaviour by closing a section of the stadium at a Champions League playoff last season.
And at a home Europa League match against Hapoel Tel Aviv of Israel three years ago, fans displayed a ‘Jihad Legia’ banner in Arabic-style script across one end of the stadium.
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