LAUSANNE: Turkey’s Fenerbahce and Ukraine’s Metalist Kharkiv have both had their appeals against Champions League expulsion rejected by the Court of Arbitration for Sport writes KEIR RADNEDGE.
The two clubs had been banned by European federation UEFA over very different matchfixing issues. Metalist had been barred before this week’s playoff round but Fenerbahce had been allowed to play pending the outcome of their appeal.
As it was, Fenerbahce were crushed 5-0 on aggregate by Arsenal which would have rendered their appeal academic in any case.
UEFA had banned Fenerbahce from European competition for two seasons so they will be absent from the next season for which they qualify; Metalist are excluded from only this season.
The CAS rulings were rushed through under what is known as an ‘expedited procedural timetable’. Full reasonings for the decisions will be published later.
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