UEFA bans Turkish club Bursaspor for one year

GENEVA

Football’s European governing body UEFA has banned Bursaspor from the next UEFA competition because of the Turkish football club’s financial issues, according to a statement on Dec. 22.

“The suspended exclusion imposed by the Court of Arbitration in Sport in 2012 has come into effect and Bursaspor is, therefore, excluded from participating in the next UEFA club competition for which it would otherwise qualify in the next four seasons [2015/16, 2016/17, 2017/18 and 2018/19],” the  UEFA Club Financial Control Panel said in a statement.

The suspended exclusion took place in 2012, when Bursaspor paid the transfer fee of the club’s former Zambian football player, Collins Mbesuma.

UEFA also imposed a provisional one-year exclusion on Bursaspor “unless the club is able to prove by Jan. 31, 2015 that the amounts identified as overdue payables on Sept. 30, 2014 have been paid.”

Bursaspor was also fined “100,000 euros, half of which is suspended and will only be applied if the club is not able to prove by the above-mentioned deadline that it has paid the total amount of overdue payables.”

“We have sent a letter, a petition of appeal, to the Court of Arbitration which indicates our objection against UEFA’s decision,” said Bursaspor President Recep Bolukbasi while commenting on the decision.
“We have asked for an appeal; this process will continue,” he said.

Apart from Bursaspor, Lithuania’s FK Ekranas was also handed a one-year ban that would affect its chances for the next two seasons.

Romania’s CFR 1907 Cluj and FC Astra Giurgiu were also excluded from participating in the next UEFA club competition, for which it would otherwise qualify in the next three seasons.

The UEFA Financial Fair Play Regulations, first agreed to in principle in September 2009 by the Financial Control Panel, were brought in to prevent professional football clubs from spending more than they earn in the pursuit of success and getting into financial problems which might threaten their long term survival by doing so.

This was not the first time Turkish clubs, in particular Bursaspor, have received such a ban.

On May 30, 2012, UEFA did not issue a licence for the 2012–13 European season to two Turkish clubs, Beşiktaş and Bursaspor, and provisionally suspended Beşiktaş for one more season if the club had qualified between 2013–14 to 2017–18.

As a result, despite having qualified for the playoff games against Norway’s Trömsö, Beşiktaş was suspended from the Europe League group stages in 2013 due to an August 30 decision by UEFA.

Fenerbahçe, last year’s Spor Toto Super League champions, were banned from UEFA competitions due to a match-rigging case from 2011. As a result, Fenerbahçe lost its Champions League ticket for this season.