April 1 – Last season’s beaten Europa League finalists Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk of Ukraine have been banned from European competition for one season by UEFA for breaching financial regulations.
UEFA confirmed that Inter Baku, from Azerbaijan, and Romania’s Targu Mures have also been given one-season bans. UEFA say the bans will apply to the next season in which the clubs qualify for European competition and would be in force for the next three campaigns.
Dnipro twice won the old Soviet league, reached the old European Cup quarter-finals in 1985 and 1990 and got all the way to last season’s Europa League final before losing to Sevilla.
Unconfirmed reports suggest the sanctions have been handed down because players have not been paid on time and Dnipro coach Myron Markevych admitted as much.
“I did not imagine this could have happened to the club that was playing in the Europa League final half a year ago,” he said.
“The team are well known in Europe and worldwide. How could it happen? I am not aware of the president’s plans and how he sees the future of the club. We’ve got new debts. I know the foreign players are making new complaints. We have not been paid for four months at all.”
“It’s clear that if the club is banned from the European stage there is no reason to stay here. This is very bad for us. We have been playing on the European stage for 10 years and now we have been kicked off for something which is not the fault of the players and coaches. Dnipro is a serious club, a big name. At least, it was.”
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