Upon analyzing the final decisions of the "Apito Final" case, UEFA has decided to punish Porto with a 1 year suspension from European competitions.
Here's the official UEFA decision
Porto, if you recall, was punished with the loss of 6 points from having been found guilty of attempt to corruptin the 03/04 season. Pinto da Costa was also sanctioned with a 2 year suspension by the Portuguese Disciplinary Commision. Porto in its infinite wisdom, decided not to appeal the 6 point decision, hence admitting fault. The results from the "Apito Final" trial had to be submitted to UEFA, and UEFA found that Porto violated their laws, namely 1.04.d in their rule book which states:
To be eligible to participate in the competition, a club must fulfil the following criteria:
....
d) it must not be or have been involved in any activity aimed at arranging or influencing the outcome of a match at national or international level;
Porto now has 2 chances to appeal UEFA's decision.
With Porto out, Benfica would automatically be in. But it's too early to say for sure, as the appealing process must take place, but with Porto deciding not to appeal the decision in Portugal, they have dug their own grave.
If you want to get a feel for what goes on at Porto behind the scenes, check out Benfica Up Front's latest Post
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Wednesday, June 4, 2008
UEFA Drops the Hammer!
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2 comments:
Fumas -- Are you sure Benfica gets the automatic spot?
Either way, the bigger question is which Porto stars decide to jump ship now that the CL is out of the picture.
http://startingeleven.blogspot.com/2008/06/banned-fc-porto-out-of-champions-league.html
That's from what I have read.
In porto's absence, and since they are the top team in Portugal, all the other teams would take a step forward. I did hear that another team is following the decision carefully, i believe a russian team whose name escapes me now, but that wouldn't make sense as that would be punishing the country and it's point coeficient.
Portugal has 3 spots for 08/09 those 3 spots should be filled with Portuguese teams. Oh and another thing i have heard was that Porto will be reporting Benfica, namely Rui Costa to the Uefa for his involvement with BetClick, during last year.
get ready for the mud slinging.
I think that Porto will be forced to sell a star to absorb the financial loss that the exclusion from the CL will cause. I don't have the exact numbers in front of me but it's a big dent. Let's hope that UEFA remains firm, and that the appeals are denied.
Benfica doesn't deserve to be in the CL based on their horrible season, but i much rather be in the CL like this, than to be in the CL year in and year out while buying referees to achieve this.
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