By Andrew Warshaw
September 8 – Swiss club Sion’s appeal against being thrown out of this season’s Europa League will be heard next Tuesday (September 13), just 48 hours before the group stages of the competition are due to get under way.
The Swiss club were removed from the competition a week ago after they were adjudged to have fielded ineligible players in the play-off qualifying round against Celtic, a tie they won 3-1 on aggregate.
The Scots were instead awarded the place in a group that includes Atletico Madrid, Rennais and Udinese.
Sion elected to pursue the matter through the civil courts but UEFA refused to re-instate them in what is becoming a watershed case for European football.
It is understood Sion lodged their appeal just before tonight’s deadline, setting up Tuesday’s appeal hearing which seems almost certain to go against the Swiss club who have become pariahs in European football.
A UEFA spokesperson told insideworldfootball there would still be time to re-organise the competition if the appeal is upheld despite Celtic being drawn to play in Madrid on Thursday though either way it leaves precious little time for preparation.
“There would still be two days left if we have to change things,” she said.
Christian Constantin, the controversial Sion President, has vowed to fight UEFA all the way through other legal channels, even if the Europa League starts without his side.
“It’s not finished,” he said.
“We might not make it to Madrid but perhaps after that the justice system might ask the competition to stop and allow our reintegration.
“You can start the competition and then a judge might say stop.”
The complex case goes back to when Sion were handed a transfer embargo for breaching rules over the signing of Essam El-Hadary, an Egyptian goalkeeper, three years ago. El-Hadary’s former club Al Ahly maintained he was still under contract to them.
The Swiss club and FIFA have different interpretations over the length of the ban and Sion won a court case allowing them to field six new players in their domestic league even though FIFA statutes ban clubs and federations from taking sporting cases to civil courts.
Sion subsequently registered the players in their Europa League squad and played five of them – Pascal Feindouno, Gabri, Mario Mutsch, José Goncalves and Billy Ketkeophomphone – against Celtic. Feindouno scored twice in Sion’s 3-1 second-leg win after a 0-0 draw in the first leg.
The club believe UEFA also gave them the green light to field the new players and have accused Europe’s governing body of revenge against the outspoken Constantin.
But their case is already faltering.
Although they were given the legal go-ahead to play the new recruits in the Swiss League, Sion’s local court has now said it has no jurisdiction over the row with UEFA since the organisation’s Nyon headquarters resides in a different canton of the country.
Contact the writer of this story at zib.l1751441398labto1751441398ofdlr1751441398owedi1751441398sni@w1751441398ahsra1751441398w.wer1751441398dna1751441398
Related stories
September 2011: Andrew Warshaw – Sion’s case has potential to be as far reaching as Bosman
September 2011: Sion fight Europa League expulsion at Swiss court
September 2011: Celtic reinstated in Europa League after FC Sion ban
August 2011: Sion set to learn fate over El-Hadary saga
August 2011: Celtic set to be put back in to Europa League