Legia Warsaw lose final CAS appeal against UEFA ruling
Thursday 30 April 2015 12:12, UK
Legia Warsaw have failed in their final appeal against UEFA’s decision to punish them for an administrative error that led them to being knocked out of Champions League qualifying by Celtic.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) dismissed Legia's claim that UEFA was too severe after it punished them for mistakenly fielding a suspended player in their third qualifying round tie with the Hoops in August.
Bartosz Bereszynski came on as a substitute in the closing stages of the second leg of Legia’s 6-1 aggregate victory over Celtic but he was deemed not to have served a three-match ban - despite sitting out three European games - as the Polish champions had not listed him as suspended in their squad for the previous round.
Ronny Deila’s side were subsequently awarded a 3-0 second-leg victory by UEFA's control and disciplinary body and went through on the away goals' rule before going on to lose against Maribor as they failed to make the group stages of the competition.
Legia failed in an initial appeal to UEFA and also had a bid to be provisionally reinstated in the Champions League qualifiers rejected by CAS.
They have now lost their bid for £1.3m compensation after the Swiss-based court dismissed their argument that UEFA's rules were overly bureaucratic and that the sanction was disproportionate.
A statement from the court read: "The CAS panel found that UEFA's requirement that only listed players can serve pending suspensions did not constitute excessive formalism and that it was compulsory for the club to list the player in order for him to serve his suspension.
"The panel further found that Legia Warsaw's violation of this requirement constituted a disciplinary infringement justifying the imposition of a disciplinary sanction, and that UEFA's decision to declare the club's match against Celtic FC to be lost by forfeit was not disproportionate."
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