The UEFA Appeals Committee has decided to leave Osasuna out of the 2023-2024 Conference League, according to the Navarrese club on its website, which announces that it will appeal to the TAS because it understands that it is “a serious violation of their rights “. A decision that La Vanguardia already advanced last June.
According to Osasuna, the members of the UEFA Appeals Committee “have not taken into account the allegations presented by the entity last Friday and have reaffirmed the initial opinion of the inspectors of the UEFA Control, Ethics and Disciplinary Committee”.
The reasons why the Appeals Committee has decided to exclude Osasuna will be transferred to the entity in the coming days, but already this Tuesday Osasuna stresses that “it does not share UEFA’s criteria at all nor the investigation of the case carried out and regrets the wrong message that UEFA sends to the world of football by punishing those who denounce corruption and legally prosecute it”.
And he concludes that “Club Atlético Osasuna will continue to deploy all the legal instruments at its disposal to stand up to UEFA and put an end to what it considers a serious violation of its rights.”
If none of the Navarrese club’s claims are successful, the great beneficiary would be Athletic Club, ranked eighth in the regular season and, therefore, the team that would take over the vacant place.
The facts date back to the 2021-13 season, when it was proven by the courts that Osasuna paid two Betis players 650,000 euros to beat Valladolid. In the case of the Navarrese team, there is a judicial ruling, firm since last January, which condemns the president and several managers of the time for misappropriation, documentary falsification, accounting crime and sports corruption.
The case of FC Barcelona is different, which four days ago received the go-ahead from UEFA inspectors to register the team in the Champions League. The ‘Negreira case’ has not yet been judged in court, so as long as there is no final sentence, UEFA is not in favor of applying any type of sanction.
