By Andrew Warshaw
August 29 – Turkey’s Fenerbahce have had their appeal against Champions League expulsion rejected by the Court of Arbitration for Sport which upheld UEFA’s two-year ban from European competition over a much-publicised match-fixing scandal.
The 18-times Turkish champions were eliminated on the pitch from this season’s competition by Arsenal on Tuesday and under normal circumstances would have dropped down into the Europa League.
But now they have had salt rubbed into their wounds by being barred from that competition too, with the draw scheduled for Friday.
“Fenerbahce SK is excluded from two editions of the UEFA club competitions,” CAS said in its ruling following a two-day hearing held at its Swiss headquarters.
UEFA had expelled Fenerbahce in June after judging that club officials helped fix matches to win the 2011 Turkish league title. The club gained a temporary emergency reprieve allowing them to play in the Champions League qualifying campaign pending a final CAS verdict.
A UEFA Emergency Panel will now meet on Thursday to decide who will take Fenerbahce’s place in the Europa League main draw.
CAS also confirmed Metalist Kharkiv’s expulsion from the Champions League in another old match-rigging case involving domestic games.
With next season’s European hopes dashed as well as this one, Fenerbahce pledged to challenge the CAS verdict at Switzerland’s supreme court. “We are determined to continue our legal struggle until the end at every (available) platform,” the Istanbul club said in a statement.
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