Bursaspor KD remains excluded from the 2015/2016 UEFA competitions
11 June 2015 – The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has rendered its decision in the arbitration procedure between the Turkish football club Bursaspor Kulübü Derneği and UEFA. The Turkish club remains excluded from the 2015/2016 UEFA competitions following breaches of the UEFA Club Licencing and Financial Fair Play Regulations (the UEFA Financial Fair Play Regulations).
In a CAS decision issued in June 2012, Bursaspor KD was fined EUR 250,000 and excluded from one UEFA club competition for which it qualified in the next four years after having been found to have breached the UEFA Financial Fair Play Regulations with respect to overdue payables. The exclusion was suspended for a probationary period of three years.
At the end of the 2013/2014 season, Bursaspor KD qualified for the 2014/2015 UEFA Europa League competition. As a consequence of such qualification, Bursaspor was required to supply certain financial information to ensure its compliance with the UEFA Financial Fair Play Regulations. On 19 December 2014, the UEFA CFCB Adjudicatory Chamber ruled that Bursaspor KD had breached the UEFA Financial Fair Play Regulations during the probationary period set out in the earlier decision and ordered that the suspended exclusion come into immediate effect.
On 25 December 2014, Bursaspor KD filed an appeal at the CAS against the UEFA CFCB Adjudicatory Chamber’s decision.
The arbitration procedure was conducted by a panel of CAS arbitrators: Mark Hovell, UK (President), Manfred Nan, Netherlands, and João Nogueira da Rocha, Portugal. The parties presented their cases at a hearing held at the CAS Court Office on 14 April 2015.
Bursaspor KD argued that the UEFA CFCB Adjudicatory Chamber had no jurisdiction to impose the suspended sanction and that the CAS Panel should set aside the sanction or at least impose a milder sanction proportionate to the circumstances of the violation, given that it had subsequently paid all its debts. UEFA, on the other hand, put forward that the appeal should be dismissed and demonstrated the jurisdiction of the UEFA CFCB Adjudicatory Chamber to impose the suspended sanction.
Having reviewed the evidence, the CAS Panel determined that the CFCB Adjudicatory Chamber did have jurisdiction to consider the prior decision and to confirm the competition ban contained therein. Accordingly, it confirmed that Bursaspor KD would be excluded from participating in any 2015/2016 UEFA Club Competition.
The Arbitral Award will be published on the CAS website in due course.
