December 15, 2011 ? GENEVA (AP) ? FC Sion lost its lengthy legal fight with UEFA on Thursday, failing to win reinstatement to the Europa League in a player eligibility dispute which had threatened football's legal structures.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport upheld UEFA's right to kick Sion out of the competition because the Swiss club fielded ineligible players in a playoff victory over Celtic. With its verdict, the court also protected UEFA and FIFA, who had warned of legal anarchy if Sion won its case.
"This respect of the rules has to be applied at all levels: of players, clubs, leagues, and in all competitions, in order to preserve what football stands for," UEFA said in a statement. The court said the decision was "rendered unanimously by the three Swiss arbitrators comprising the arbitral panel in this case."
CAS ordered Sion to pay UEFA 40,000 Swiss francs ($42,500) for legal costs. The verdict was delivered less than 24 hours before UEFA conducts the draw for the Round of 32. Had it lost the case, UEFA faced a tricky dilemma to restore Sion halfway through the competition.
CAS said it would publish reasons for its ruling "within the next weeks." Sion then has 30 days to appeal at Switzerland's supreme court, which can overturn verdicts in a process typically lasting several months if legal process was abused.
"The club will soon go to the Swiss Federal Tribunal," Sion said in a statement. "The CAS does not offer any guarantee of independence (in particular, how it chooses arbitrators) and violates several standards of national and international law."
Sion had challenged UEFA's decision to award Celtic 3-0 wins by default for both legs of a playoff in August. Sion had won 3-1 on aggregate using five players signed in breach of a FIFA transfer ban. The dispute dates from 2008, when Sion broke FIFA transfer rules by luring goalkeeper Essam El-Hadary to break his contract with Egyptian club Al-Ahly.
FIFA banned Sion from registering new players for two official trading periods spanning one year. The legality of the sanction was upheld despite Sion appeals to FIFA, CAS and then the supreme court, which ruled in January. The sanction then took effect, but Sion defied it in the offseason and signed six new players ? Pascal Feindouno, Mario Mutsch, Gabri, Jose Goncalves, Stefan Glarner and Billy Ketkeophomphone ? arguing that the ban had been served over accumulated time.
Sion's aggressive legal tactics succeeded in entangling the Swiss league, which approves player registrations, and football's governing bodies as the club and players sought a variety of interim rulings in local civil courts.
The legal statutes of FIFA and UEFA prohibit clubs from using ordinary courts to resolve football disputes, and they repeatedly warned Sion that it must respect CAS's authority. In its ruling Thursday, CAS said some legal cases were still outstanding.
FIFA and the Swiss league have filed appeals at CAS to challenge an interim decision granted to the players by a court in Sion's home canton (state) in August. Sion had asked UEFA for ?5 million ($6.5 million) in damages and filed a criminal complaint against UEFA President Michel Platini. He met with prosecutors in UEFA's neighboring home canton (state) to explain his organization's stance.
Sion also enlisted Belgian sports lawyer Jean-Louis Dupont and said it would formally complain about UEFA to the European Commission.
Source: http://www.mail.com/int/sports/soccer/912992-swiss-club-sion-loses-europa-league-legal-fight.html
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