Fenerbahce Face European Expulsion After CAS Reject Appeal

Fenerbahce are facing expulsion from this year’s Europa League after the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) rejected the club’s appeal to overturn its match-fixing ban from European competitions.

The Turkish club were issued a two-year ban for match-fixing in June for their involvement in manipulation of domestic games in the 2010-11 season.

Fenerbahce crashed out of the Champions League last night, losing 5-0 to Arsenal on aggregate and were due to play in the Europa League for the rest of the season.

The CAS originally issued a stay of execution pending the final ruling which allowed the Yellow Canaries to beat Red Bull Salzburg in the third qualifying round before the Arsenal leg.

UEFA welcomed the decision and commented in an official statement: “UEFA welcomes today’s decisions of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) rejecting the appeals made by Fenerbahçe SK and FC Metalist Kharkiv against the UEFA Appeals Body decisions of 15 July 2013 and 14 August 2013 respectively.

“The UEFA Emergency Panel will meet on Thursday afternoon to decide on the consequences the confirmed exclusion of Fenerbahçe SK from the 2013/14 UEFA club competitions will have on the UEFA Europa League.”

Besiktas decision looms

Istanbul rivals Besiktas were also suspended by UEFA for attempting to fix the Turkish Cup final.

Their Europa League playoff against Tromso will go ahead, with the CAS decision on their case expected on August 30.