August 4 – Osasuna, who had their ban from European competition overturned last week bu UEFA, have not escaped sanction for filing a claim before the ‘ordinary state courts’ in Pamplona related to that initial ban which was issued for a decade-old match-fixing infraction.
In what is also a message to other clubs who may consider going to the civil courts if they are unhappy with the sports ones, Osasuna have been fined €100,000 and re-suspended from the next UEFA club competition for which it would otherwise qualify “for having failed to respect the exclusive jurisdiction of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS)”, by going to the Pamplona courts.
However, this time the ban has been suspended for a provisional period of two years, and Osasuna will play in the 2023/24 UEFA Europa Conference League, but UEFA will withhold 5% of the revenues the club will earn from its participation.
UEFA originally removed the club from its third-tier competition a month ago because former club officials were implicated in fixing matches.
Under UEFA rules any team implicated in match-fixing since April 2007 can be excluded from the next European competition they qualify for. Osasuna have not qualified for a UEFA competition since the 2006-07 season and the club argued that its current management was not involved in match manipulation.
The club from Pamplona filed an appeal at CAS trying to save its first European qualification for 17 years after finishing seventh in the Spanish league last season.
In a statement last week, Osasuna said a so-called “consent award” was reached with UEFA and ratified by CAS.
“In view of the new evidence provided by the club … UEFA has concluded that Osasuna was a victim of the events that occurred almost a decade ago and has valued the initiative carried out by the institution to clarify them,” Osasuna said.
For its part, UEFA said Osasuna had produced new evidence “which it was not in a position to file at an earlier stage.”
However, Osasuna had not been prepared to wait for its appeal process before the sports courts to complete and had taken the matter to the Pamplona courts, in contradiction of the UEFA rules. They weren’t so lucky this time with UEFA over the infringement of UEFA’s rules but they did still keep their participation in this season’s Europa Conference League.
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