Turkish clubs Fenerbahce and Besiktas were both excluded from European competition next season because of their roles in a massive domestic match-fixing scandal, UEFA announced on Tuesday.
UEFA’s disciplinary Commission ruled that Fenerbahce, Europa League semi-finalists last season, were barred from the Champions League, while Besiktas cannot compete in the Europa League.
European soccer’s governing body can bar any club that has been involved, either directly or indirectly, in match fixing.
Photo: EPA
Both clubs announced they would appeal the decision.
“Fenerbahce will not have the right to compete in the next three European competitions they qualify for, which includes the 2013/14 Champions League,” UEFA said in a statement. “They will be on probation for five years regarding the third year of the ban.”
Fenerbahce, who would have contested the third preliminary round after finishing second in the Turkish league, issued a statement saying they would appeal.
“Our club will be filing an appeal to UEFA’s Appeals Committee,” it said on its Web site.
Besiktas, who would have contested the playoffs for the Europa League group stage, were, according to sources within the club cited by the Dogan news agency, preparing a dossier through their lawyers to present to UEFA yesterday.
Turkish soccer was rocked by a huge corruption scandal in 2011 that resulted in Fenerbahce president Aziz Yildirim being sentenced to six years and three months in prison in July last year, but he was released after having been detained for a year when he appealed the conviction.
He was just one of more than 90 executives, officials and players convicted over the scandal, which involved several matches in the 2010-2011 league season and includes the game that saw Fenerbahce clinch the title — a 4-3 win over Sivasspor on the last day of the campaign.
The two clubs had already been punished by the Turkish Football Federation, with Fenerbahce being prevented from competing in the 2011-2012 Champions League and Beisktas were stripped of their 2011 Turkish Cup victory.
UEFA were more lenient with Romanian side Steaua Bucharest, whose president, Gigi Becali, already serving a prison sentence for corruption, was sentenced to a further three years earlier this month for having offered bribes to players from a rival team, Universitatea Cluj, in 2008.
“The Control and Disciplinary Body also carefully analyzed the situation of FC Steaua Bucharest and, taking into account certain mitigating circumstances, the following sanction has been imposed: FC Steaua Bucharest is not eligible to participate in one UEFA club competition for which the club would otherwise qualify. This sanction is deferred for a probationary period of five years,” UEFA said.
Shaquille O’Neal is staying with TNT Sports on a new contract worth more than US$15 million per year, Front Office Sports reported on Friday. The news means the cast of Inside the NBA is staying together even as TNT is set to license out the show to ESPN starting next season. TNT was the odd network out in the NBA’s recent TV rights negotiations, as NBC and Amazon joined previous rightsholder ESPN in inking deals for basketball games. That left TNT without a need for pregame and postgame NBA shows. In a trade with ESPN, TNT is licensing Inside the NBA to the
Juventus on Sunday stopped Inter from replacing SSC Napoli at the top of Serie A by beating their fierce rivals 1-0 and moving into the UEFA Champions League positions. Francisco Conceicao made sure that Napoli would stay two points ahead of reigning champions Inter by classily tucking home the winning goal 16 minutes before the end of an entertaining contest in Turin. Portugal attacker Conceicao netted his fourth goal of the season in all competitions after brilliant work from Randal Kolo Muani to give Juve a third straight league win. Juve are in fourth place on 46 points, ahead on goal-difference from SS
BELGIANS ADVANCE: Club Brugge gave Atalanta a lesson in efficiency, as Gian Piero Gasperini’s team had 29 efforts at goal, compared with seven from the visitors Seldom has a player’s sending off had such an influence on a game. AC Milan was to left rue Theo Hernandez’s second yellow card — for diving — as Feyenoord advanced to the UEFA Champions League last 16 at the former European champion’s expense with a 1-1 draw in the second leg of their playoff on Tuesday, giving the Dutch team a 2-1 win on aggregate. Bayern Munich, Club Brugge and Benfica also won their playoffs, eliminating Celtic, UEFA Europa League winner Atalanta BC and French team AS Monaco respectively. “In soccer everything changes in a second,” said Milan forward
Eugenie Bouchard already has her own signature pickleball paddle. She is No. 17 in the pickleball rankings and constantly appears on the main court at events because she is always a big draw. However, just to be absolutely clear, she is not retired from tennis. The 2014 Wimbledon finalist still practices on the tennis court, still competes at tennis events and still has a Women’s Tennis Association ranking (No. 1,288). The Canadian standout just has a new sport that has caught her attention. Bouchard is one of several familiar tennis names — like Jack Sock and Donald Young — crossing over to
RSS