Shocking claim ! Why Fenerbahce did drop their case against Uefa ?
Since Fenerbahce have declared they will drop their case at the Court of Sporting Arbitration (CAS) against Uefa and the Turkish Football Federation (TFF) over their expulsion from this season’s Champions League and for the losses incurred, the reason behind the Fenerbahce’s withdrawal stirred controversy in Turkey.
Istanbul / NationalTurk – At the end of April 2012 Fenerbahce vice president Nihat Özdemir announced Fenerbahçe’s decision to withdraw the lawsuit the club filed with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) against Football’s governing bodies in Europe and Turkey, UEFA and TFF respectively, over Fenerbahce’s exclusion from 2011-2012 Champions’ League competition and for the losses the club financially incurred.
As Fener’s president Aziz Yıldırım is in prison, vice-president Özdemir stated the club’s withdrawing the case would be for the benefit and interest of Turkey. He also added the Fenerbahce’s executive board decided that dropping the case would help resolve troubled relations in the society of Turkish football, especially between the TFF, Fenerbahçe and UEFA.
Only couple of days following Fener’s announcement TFF president Yıldırım Demirören stated his Federation had changed Article 58 of TFF’s disciplinary regulations. Article 58 was amended to include point deduction as a possible penalty for match-fixing as opposed to the previous version of the article, which only allowed for the relegation of a team involved to a lower league in any kind of match-fixing attempt. That announcement from TFF drew strong criticism and brought severe suspicions along.
Shocking claims : Are Fenerbahce’s withdrawing the case against Uefa and TFF’s change of 58th article linked to each other ?
It is claimed that Uefa has threatened TFF with banning Turkish clubs from European contests for 5 years, if TFF would change the 58th article of TFF’s disciplinary regulations. Same reports indicated that TFF head Yıldırım Demiroren and UEfA boss Platini negotiated fiercely over the duration of Uefa ban to Turkish teams. The shocking proposal came from Demiroren, as he suggested that if UEFA would lower the duration of bans, Fenerbahce would drop the case at CAS and TFF would pay Fenerbahce the damages, Uefa has to pat them.
The claims go further and insider sources close to Fenerbahce board reveal first steps had already been taken toward such result:
TFF has reached an agreement with UEFA to lower the duration of bans to 3 years and TFF has paid Fenerbahce 25 Mil. Euros in advance for withdrawing the case at CAS in return.
How the crisis amidst match-fixing crisis started ?
Fenerbahce had announced their intention to sue the governing bodies for the losses incurred and took their case to the Court of Sporting Arbitration in (CAS) in January. The Istanbul club won the Super Lig last season, but their title victory was soon called into question by a string of match-fixing allegations.
The TFF made a late decision to withdraw the Yellow Canaries from Europe’s premier competition, and replace them with Trabzonspor.
However, they have now told the Turkish stock exchange that they will be dropping the suit, but declined the opportunity to give any further details. Fenerbahce have seen their share prices go up by more than five per cent in the wake of the announcement.
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