April 18 – Swiss club FC Sion, which has a history of controversy on and off the field, have been a handed a two-season ban from European competition by UEFA over a transfer debt.
Sion is barred from its next Champions League or Europa League qualification on merit in the next two seasons.
Clubs are not allowed to take part in European competition if they have unpaid bills to other parties.
“The club is excluded from participating in the next UEFA club competition for which it would otherwise qualify in the next two seasons (i.e. 2018/19 and 2019/20 seasons),” said UEFA in a statement.
“There can be no dispute that there were overdue payables which should have been included in the financial information submitted by the club.”
UEFA recognised that Sion, who were kicked out of the Europa League in 2011/12 for fielding ineligible players in a qualifying tie against Celtic, had made an administrative mistake, rather than deliberately concealing the unpaid bill.
UEFA, however, said its financial board had “stressed on a number of occasions that a club’s disclosures have to be “correct” and “accurate”, otherwise the whole club licensing and financial fair play system would be undermined.”
UEFA has also taken action after breaches by a number of other clubs, fining Irtysh of Kazakhstan €440,000 and putting the club on three years’ probation.
And it has withheld €215,000 of Europa League participation bonuses from both Serbian club FC Vojvodina and Albania’s KF Tirana for breaching licensing rules.
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