UEFA has given Osasuna a suspended one-year ban from its competitions and fined the La Liga side €100,000 for taking the organisation to court in Pamplona over their previous exclusion from this season’s Conference League.
Osasuna’s ban has been suspended for two years and the club will also be docked five per cent of their revenues from their participation in the Conference League this year.
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UEFA inspectors recommended in June that Osasuna be expelled from next season’s Conference League, after they for the competition after finishing seventh in La Liga in 2022-23.
UEFA’s argument related to ‘Caso Osasuna’, a match-fixing scandal dating from the end of the 2013-14 La Liga season which led to the conviction in 2020 of several of the club’s former directors. Osasuna argued that the current administration were the ones who notified the authorities about the irregularities and had nothing to do with the scandal.
And last month, following proceedings at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), UEFA decided that Osasuna could compete next season. After taking the case to CAS, Osasuna won by ‘Consent Award’ — a conciliation process overseen by CAS between the parties. During this process, UEFA accepted Osasuna’s arguments, so CAS did not need to hold a proper case.
But, while it was resolved at CAS, Osasuna also took the case to state courts in Pamplona, a violation of UEFA statutes for “having failed to respect the exclusive jurisdiction of the Court of Arbitration for Sport”.
When announcing the CAS decision last month, Osasuna acknowledged their wrongdoing in UEFA’s eyes and said they would not appeal any sanctions for taking their case to state courts.
Osasuna will be in the draw for the play-off round on August 7. Those games will take place on August 24 and 31, before the group stage begins on September 21.
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Osasuna will have to fight to play in Europe - by taking on UEFA
(Photo: Juan Manuel Serrano Arce/Getty Images)