By Andrew Warshaw
August 14 – The match-fixing scourge that continues to plague European football has struck right at the heart of the Champions League with UEFA dramatically booting Metalist Kharkiv out of the competition.
The Ukrainian club had been due to face Germany’s Schalke in the play-off round next week but has been expelled for the 2013-14 season following a meeting of UEFA’s appeals body, and replaced by Greek side PAOK Salonika whom they beat 3-1 on aggregate in the third qualifying round.
PAOK’s place in the Europa League will now be taken by Israel’s Maccabi Tel-Aviv.
Earlier this month, the Court of Arbitration for Sport dismissed an appeal from Metalist’s sporting director Yevhen Krasnikov against a five-year ban, upholding an earlier Ukrainian FA ruling that Krasnikov had helped to fix a league match against Karpaty Lviv in April 2008. Following a change in its statutes, UEFA can now take retrospective action and throw a club out if it is found to have been involved directly or indirectly in “any activity aimed at arranging or influencing the outcome of a match at national or international level.”
The expulsion is a bitter blow to the Ukrainian league runners-up, who were pursuing their debut Champions League campaign, especially as the case refers a domestic fixture five years ago. It is is further complicated by the fact that the latest UEFA judgement can also be challenged at the CAS or even Switzerland’s supreme court, something the club’s new owners are considering.
“We regret that such a sanction was applied, and we do not agree with it,” Metalist first vice-president Konstantin Pivovarov said.
The club has asked the Swiss Federal Tribunal to examine the 250-page CAS ruling that upheld Krasnikov’s ban. “I want to assure fans that we will fight for the rights of the club,” Pivovarov added.
Metalist’s expulsion case comes amid uncertainty surrounding another Champions League club, Fenerbahce, banned by UEFA in June from two seasons of European club competitions, only for the sanction to be frozen pending an appeal at the CAS.
Fenerbahce eliminated Salzburg in the third qualifying round to earn a playoff tie against Arsenal. The first leg is in Istanbul next Wednesday with the CAS promising a final judgment on August 28, the eve of the eagerly awaited group stage draw in Monaco.
No decision has yet been taken by UEFA about what would happen if Fenerbahce knock Arsenal out but then lose their appeal. Logic would suggest the London club take their place but UEFA may decide to award the spot to the next highest club from last season’s Turkish league.
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