UF banned Osasuna for a year and fined the La Liga side €100,000 in Pamplona, following their previous expulsion from the Zim Conference League.
Osasuna’s ban has been suspended for two years, and the club will be docked five percent of its conference league revenue this year.
UEFA regulators recommended in June that Osasuna be kicked out of next season’s Conference League after finishing seventh in La Liga in 2022-23.
A UEFA dispute related to ‘Caso Osasuna’, a match-fixing scandal that occurred at the end of the 2013-14 La Liga season, has led to the indictment of several of the club’s former directors in 2020. Osasuna argued that the administration in power informed the authorities about the illegal activities and had nothing to do with the scandal.
And last month, after proceedings at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), UEFA ruled Osasuna could compete next season. After taking the case to CAS, Osasuna won a ‘Consent Award’ – a conciliation process between the parties at CAS. UEFA has accepted Osasuna’s argument in this process, so CAS does not need to deal with the relevant issue.
But when it was resolved by CAS, Osasuna took the case to the regional court in Pamplona, claiming it had breached UEFA rules “by not respecting the exclusive jurisdiction of the Court of Arbitration for Sport”.
When Osasuna announced the CAS decision last month, they admitted they were wrong in UEFA’s eyes and said they would not accept any punishment for taking their case to state courts.
Osasuna will be in the knockout round draw on August 7. They will be played on August 24 and 31, before the group stage kicks off on September 21.
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Osasuna will have to fight to play in Europe – lifting UEFA
(Photo: Juan Manuel Serrano Arce/Getty Images)
