June 4 – Trabzonspor, leaders of the Turkish league before football was wiped off the map by Covid-19, have announced they will appeal against being banned by UEFA for a season for breaking financial fair play rules.
The ban, announced yesterday, is a massive blow for the club which leads Istanbul Basaksehir on goal difference with eight rounds left to play and fixtures due to restart next week.
Trabzonspor, who would be unlikely domestic champions, face missing out in millions of dollars of Champions League funds were they to clinch the Turkish Super League.
UEFA said in a statement on Wednesday that Trabzonspor had failed to meet the conditions of previous 2016 settlement agreement to avoid sanctions.
It said that the ban would be applied if the club qualified for Europe in either of the next two campaigns but would not be implemented after that.
A UEFA statement read: “On 5 July 2019, the UEFA Club Financial Control Body (CFCB) Adjudicatory Chamber determined that Trabzonspor AŞ (TUR) failed to be break-even compliant as required by a settlement agreement, which it entered into on 20 May 2016 and sanctioned the club with a conditional exclusion from participating in one (1) UEFA club competition for which it would otherwise qualify in the 2020/21 and 2021/22 seasons.”
“The sanction would not take effect if the club fulfilled certain conditions, including meeting a target with respect to its financial results for the 2019 financial year.
“The CFCB Adjudicatory Chamber has now determined that Trabzonspor AŞ failed to meet the target fixed for the 2019 financial year.
“As a result, the CFCB Adjudicatory Chamber has ordered that the club be excluded from participating in one (1) UEFA club competition for which it would otherwise qualify in the 2020/21 and 2021/22 seasons.”
Trabzonspor, from the Black Sea, is regarded as one of Turkish football’s ‘big four’ clubs, along with its Istanbul-based rivals Beşiktaş, Fenerbahçe, and Galatasaray but has struggled on and off the pitch for several seasons including being involved in a match-fixing debacle.
The club said it would appeal UEFA’s ban at sport’s highest court.
“We announce to public that Trabzonspor will appeal at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Switzerland in 10 days,” the club said on its website.
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