By Paul Nicholson in Prague
August 30 – Besiktas have lost their last minute appeal against the decision by UEFA to exclude the Turkish club from the Europa League 2013/14. The draw for the group stages, taking place today in Monaco, will now see Besiktas replaced by Norwegian club Tromsø – who had lost to Beşiktaş in the play-off round.
Following the draw UEFA’s top brass will be making a dash from Monaco to Prague where Bayern Munich, winners of the Champions League, face Chelsea, winners of the Europa Cup, in the Super Cup tonight.
The decision to re-instate Tromsø back into the Europa League was taken by a UEFA Emergency Panel, which is composed of five members of the UEFA Executive Committee.
The panel also decided that following the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) confirmation of the exclusion of Fenerbahçe from UEFA club competitions on Wednesday, all the teams eliminated in the play-off round of the UEFA Europa League would enter a draw for a place in the group stage.
Cypriot club Apoel FC were first club out the draw and will go into this afternoon’s draw for the Europa League..
The last minute ruling by CAS on Besiktas was in fact part of an accelerated process. Both Besiktas and Fenerbahce had been granted the right to play in European competition while their appeals were being heard.
In Besiktas’ case the parties were heard at a hearing at the CAS on August 20. The decision to turn down the appeal was made in time for today’s draw. CAS has issued the decision without explanation of the grounds on which it was made, but has said that the reasoned award will be issued as soon as possible
UEFA had sanctioned Besiktas for one year over alleged rigging of the 2011 Turkish Cup final which they won on penalties after a 2-2 draw against Buyuksehir Belediyespor.
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