Uefa has rejected Greek club Olympiacos Volou's appeal to play in the Europa League this season.
The Greek side will not feature in Europe for the next three years, rules Uefa
Uefa has rejected Greek club Olympiacos Volou's appeal to play in the Europa League this season.
The Volos-based club were implicated in a match-fixing scandal, earning a three-year ban from all Uefa competitions.
Olympiacos, though, appealed against the ruling but it was in vain, as European football's governing body confirmed the decision to uphold their original decision on Monday.
"The Uefa Appeals Body has upheld the decision to exclude Greek club Olympiacos Volou FC from this season's Uefa Europa League and to award them a further three-year ban from Uefa competitions, deferred for a probationary period of five seasons," read a statement on Uefa's
official website.
"The Appeals Body, meeting today, rejected Olympiacos Volou's appeal against the decision taken by the Uefa Control and Disciplinary Body on 10 August, the Greek club having been found to have breached Article 5 of the Uefa Disciplinary Regulations."
FC Differdange 03 of Luxembourg will replace Olympiacos in the play-off round of the Europa League, although the Greek side have ten days to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) against Uefa's ruling.
