December 17, 2011
Manchester United handed outside chance of Champions League reprieve 24LONDON:
FIFA and president Sepp Blatter have opened up the outside possibility
of Manchester United being reinstated in the Champions League knockout
stages
writes KEIR RADNEDGE.United apparently lost hope and were ‘relegated’ into the Europa
League – in which they face Ajax Amsterdam in the second round in the
spring – after losing their last group match 2-1 to FC Basel in
Switzerland 10 days ago.
Basel thus finshed as runners-up in Group C behind Benfica and,
yesterday, were drawn against Bayern Munich in the second round in
February and March.
However, in the early hours of this morning FIFA announced that it
would suspend Switzerland from all international football – which would,
logically, include the European club competitions – unless it brought
the rebellious FC Sion club to heel.
Sion president Christian Constantin has been fighting through the
sports and civil courts against FIFA, UEFA and the Swiss football
authorities over the fall-out from a transfer ban wrangle with the world
federation.
On Thursday the Court of Arbitration for Sport rejected Sion’s plea
that UEFA should reinstate the club in the Europa League from which it
was expelled last August. Sion’s legal advisers have indicated the
club’s intention of carrying on with an appeal to the Swiss federal
court which need not be registered until later next month.
A FIFA statement, after today’s executive committee meeting Tokyo,
said: “Following the latest developments in the FC Sion/Olympique des
Alpes SA (OLA) case, and in particular the decision of the Court of
Arbitration for Sport of 15 December 2011, the Executive decided to give
a final deadline of 13 January 2012 to the Swiss FA to enforce the
registration ban imposed on OLA by the FIFA Dispute Resolution Chamber
and confirmed by the Swiss Federal Court and to sanction the attitude of
the club repeatedly trying to circumvent this decision in a legally
abusive manner.
“As a consequence, all matches in which the relevant players
participated shall be declared forfeit or three points shall be deducted
respectively. Should this deadline not be respected, the Swiss FA will
be automatically suspended from 14 January 2012 onwards.”
Given the warlike and nothing-more-to-lose stance of Constantin, it
seems likely only that FIFA’s threat will harden attitudes in Sion.
This would then trigger a domino effect of Switzerland’s suspension
from all international football, Basel being barred from the Champions
League and, logically it would appear, United’s reinstatement in the
Champions League.
Comments are awaited from FIFA and UEFA.