Galatasaray confirm appeal to CAS over European ban

Galatasaray are to appeal against their one-year UEFA ban from European competitions through the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), club president Dursun Ozbek has confirmed.

The Turkish champions were suspended from participation in European competitions for one season should they qualify in either of the next two campaigns after breaching Financial Fair Play regulations.

But Ozbek believes Galatasaray have a case, having already avoided a two-year suspension that he claims was initially proposed.

“The initial ban that was proposed was two years in total, but we convinced UEFA with our defence and they reduced it to one year,” he said. “We will now present our case to the CAS.”

Confirming the punishment on March 2, UEFA’s statement read: “The Adjudicatory Chamber of the UEFA Club Financial Control Body (CFCB) today announced that Galatasaray AS will be excluded from participating in the next UEFA club competition for which they would otherwise qualify in the next two (2) seasons (i.e. the 2016-17 and 2017-18 seasons).

“This decision was taken after Galatasaray failed to comply with the terms of the settlement agreement that it entered with the CFCB Chief Investigator in May 2014 under Article 15 of the Procedural rules governing the UEFA CFCB.

“The Turkish club has also been ordered to limit the overall aggregate cost of the employee benefits expenses of all its players in each of the next two reporting periods (i.e. the reporting period ending in 2016 and the reporting period ending in 2017).”

Galatasaray finished third in Champions League Group C this season and were knocked out of the Europa League last 32 by Lazio.

They are fifth in this season’s Turkish Super Lig after 23 matches and head coach Mustafa Denizli resigned last week, less than four months after taking over at the Turk Telekom Arena.