UEFA plays hard ball over reinstating Sion

Posted Friday, October 07, 2011 by YAHOO Sport

Oct 6 (Reuters) - UEFA is looking forward to appearing before a Swiss civil court to explain why a court order saying Sion should be readmitted to the Europa League is wrong, a senior official at European soccer’s governing body said on Thursday.

“We will explain to them the sporting reasons and the sporting justice reasons why Sion should not be readmitted to the competition,” UEFA general secretary Gianni Infantino told reporters referring to himself and his president Michel Platini.

Swiss side Sion were thrown out of the Europa League for fielding six players deemed ineligible and have been replaced by Scottish team Celtic who have already played two group matches.

However, a Swiss court this week again demanded that UEFA reinstated Sion despite the huge difficulties of doing so with the competition already underway.

“After hearing both parties, the Civil Court of the Canton of Vaud has again repudiated UEFA and ruled in favor of FC Sion,” a club statement said on Wednesday.

“Under penalty, the order is again made against UEFA to reinstate the Sion team in Group I of the Europa League immediately. The decision is immediately enforceable.

“In addition, UEFA will pay a fine of 1,000 Swiss francs ($1,086) for each day of non-performance of the judge’s order.”

Sion were banned by FIFA from signing players for two transfer periods for inducing an Egyptian goalkeeper to break his contract with his team to join them in 2008.

The club said they believed the ban ended this summer and made six new signings but soccer’s world governing body said it was still in force, prompting a long legal battle which Sion now think they have won.

Earlier this week, the club dropped their appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) against the Swiss soccer league after the six players who were refused registration were finally told by the league that they were eligible to play.