The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has had a busy few days. Last week, the court upheld FIFA’s four-month ban on Uruguay international Luis Suarez. Although it did rule that his ban on all football-related activity was “excessive”, thus allowing the striker to train with teammates, participate in promotional activities and administrative matters.
Today the CAS rejected the Polish club Legia Warsaw’s appeal against the punishment from UEFA which cost them their Champions League place and reinstated Celtic into the competition.
The Polish champions had beaten Celtic 4-1 in Warsaw and 2-0 at Murrayfield. But it was learned that Legia had previously fielded an ineligible player in the third qualifying round against Celtic.
UEFA subsequently punished the Polish side by awarding a 3-0 second-leg win to Celtic. The aggregate score was 4-4, but the 3-0 road victory allowed the Scottish champions to advance to the play-off round via the away goals rule.
The Polish club had appealed to the CAS for “urgent provisional measures” which would have allowed them to participate in the play-offs of the Champions League (20 & 26 August 2014).
With today’s ruling, Celtic can now fully focus on their Wednesday Champions League play-off encounter with Slovenia’s Maribor.
Meanwhile, Legia Warsaw must now prepare to play Aktobe in Kazakhstan on Thursday in the Europa League.
