UEFA opens doors to closed stadium sanction rethink

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By Andrew Warshaw
October 23 – UEFA are to review their policy of handing out behind-closed-doors sanctions to clubs guilty of misbehaviour following complaints that innocent away fans were unfairly penalised in Tuesday’s Champions League clash between CSKA Moscow and Manchester City.

But Europe’s governing body insist no rules were broken when CSKA were ordered to play City at an empty stadium as punishment for a series of offences including racist chanting, only for around 650 fans to get in anyway.

The tie against Manchester City ended 2-2 and afterwards City’s normally mild-mannered captain Vincent Kompany led a furious protest. City, who led 2-0, insist their anger had nothing to do with the final result but that UEFAs ruling was not properly adhered to.

UEFA say that was not the case.
“Following the match between CSKA Moscow and Manchester City, UEFA has reviewed the officials’ reports and found no breach of the conditions related to a match played behind closed doors that make part of the disciplinary decision,” a UEFA statement said.

“Only people who were allowed to enter the stadium (clubs delegations, media, security staff, UEFA and guests of sponsorship partners) attended the match with no record of inappropriate behaviour.
“However, UEFA is reviewing the ‘behind-closed-doors’ policy to see if alternative solutions could be implemented in the future.”

That may not be the end of the matter, however. Reports say City will write to UEFA to complain on behalf of their supporters after handfuls of Russian fans were seen in the main stand of the Khimki Arena amid suspicions of sponsors’ passes being handed on to locals.

UEFA’s chief of press Pedro Pinto rejected such claims. “I think the club has already been penalised a lot, less than three per cent of the stadium capacity was in attendance,” he said.

“The club isn’t getting gate receipts and the players aren’t getting any meaningful support. If we say it’s behind closed doors, then it’s supposed to be behind closed doors to the general public, but there are always tickets given to VIPs, UEFA staff and sponsors. Our sponsors and partners pay a lot of money to be associated with the competition and are entitled to receive a number of tickets. They shouldn’t have to pay the price for the behaviour of others.’

“We can’t stop a limited number of sponsors and corporate guests from supporting their own team. If they decide to show up with a scarf or flag we can’t stop that.”

One of the alternatives apparently being considered by UEFA President Michel Platini may be to order clubs to allow only women and children into European matches as punishment for racist behaviour, an idea successfully introduced by Fenerbahce in Turkey a couple of years ago.

“The president has suggested an idea where instead of having empty stadiums only women and children are allowed into the match,” Pinto was quoted as saying. “This is just an idea at this stage but Mr Platini is open to discussing it inside UEFA to see if it is better overall for fans and for the image of football.”

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