Fenerbahçe, Beşiktaş to participate in Euro draws, despite UEFA ban

NYON, Switzerland

Fenerbahçe and Beşiktaş will participate in today’s European competitions’ qualifiers’ draws, after the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) issued a stay of execution on their bans from UEFA competitions.

The two Istanbul clubs announced that they would participate in the draws, despite the ban handed to them by European football’s governing body.

Fenerbahçe was given a two-year ban while Beşiktaş was handed a one-year suspension due to the two teams’ match-fixing convictions, UEFA had ruled earlier this week.

The two teams then made an application to the CAS, which confirmed on July 17 that it had “registered an appeal filed by Fenerbahçe SK and a request for provisional measures filed by Beşiktaş JK against UEFA, in relation to the decisions taken by the UEFA Appeals Body on July 10 and 11, 2013.”

The CAS also accepted Fenerbahçe and Beşiktaş’s requests for a stay of execution.

Fenerbahçe announced that it would participate in tonight’s Champions League qualifiers draw. Beşiktaş will also participate in the Europa League qualifiers draw.

Bursaspor was set to replace Fenerbahçe in the Champions League preliminaries before the stay of execution was granted, while Kayserispor and Kasımpaşa would have joined Trabzonspor in the Europa League, instead of Bursaspor and Beşiktaş.

Fenerbahçe was charged after some of its board members allegedly attempted to manipulate games in the 2010-2011 Super League, while Beşiktaş was charged for its officials’ alleged attempts to fix the 2010-2011 Turkish Cup final, which the Black Eagles won on penalties over Istanbul BB.