February 21 – Manchester City defender Kyle Walker has had his appeal against a three-match Champions League suspension turned down.
Walker was initially suspended for ‘assaulting another player’ in Man City’s group stage match away to RB Leipzig. That decision was made January 25 with the decision by UEFA’s appeals body being released February 18.
Walker neither played nor was named as a substitute for Manchester City’s 5-0 win over Porto in the first leg of their last 16 tie against Porto last week.
Walker wasn’t the only player to have a suspension appeal turned down for assaulting another player.
Porto’s Wendell Borges was also banned in January for the club’s next three Champions League matches after an incident in the club’s group game against Atlético Madrid in December.
Like Walker, Borges did not feature on the line-up for the last 16 tie between their two clubs.
OM in trouble again
Olympique Marseilles are back in front of UEFA’s disciplinary committee following their home game against Qarabag FC in the UEFA Europa Conference League.
OM have faced UEFA investigations for breaking UEFA financial fair play rules as recently as 2020, while their fans have repeatedly dragged the club into UEFA’s disciplinary.
Marseilles has a large Aremenian population. Qarabag plays in Baku and is registered as an Azerbaijani club. It originates from Agdam, but has not played in its hometown since 1993 due to the First Nagorno-Karabakh War between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
The game against OM was always likely to be a risk due to on-going tensions between Armenia and Azerbaijan and midway through the game a banner was unveiled with the political message saying ‘Qarabag is Armenia’.
UEFA is charging OM with the use of ‘illicit banners’ as well as lighting of fireworks and the blocking of public passageways.
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