UEFA announced this Tuesday that Osasuna, from Spain, is temporarily disqualified from the Conference League for the 2023/24 season.
The European football entity’s punishment is given for irregularities committed by leaders of the Spanish club in the 2013/14 season. Also according to the organization, Osasuna does not comply with the duty of “not having been directly or indirectly involved in any activity intended to influence the outcome of a game”.
OFFICIAL RELEASE | The UEFA Appeals Committee leaves Osasuna out of the 2023-2024 Conference League.
— CA OSASUNA (@Osasuna) July 4, 2023
“Club Atlético Osasuna does not share in any way the criteria of Uefa or the investigation of the case carried out and regrets the wrong message that Uefa sends to the world of football punishing those who denounce corruption and prosecute it in court. Finally, it announces that will continue to use all legal instruments at its disposal to confront UEFA and put an end to what it considers a serious violation of its rights,” the club said in an official statement.
However, Osasuna will appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (TAS) to try to reverse the punishment. The idea is to present evidence that the club is not involved in game manipulation. According to the Spanish newspaper BrandTAS has until August 7 to give its verdict on the situation.
In case he fails to revert the punishment and is in fact excluded from the next Conference League, Athletic Bilbao, which was one position behind in the table of the The league of last season, will be automatically qualified for the continental tournament.
A few days ago, the Barcelona went through a similar situation, and could be left out of the next Champions Leaguebut managed to reverse the punishment. the catalans allegedly been accused of involvement in the ‘Caso Negreira’, which was based on suspicious payments to former arbitration commanders in Spain.
Source: Gazetaesportiva
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