Uefa hands Trabzonspor Fenerbahce’s place

Trabzonspor have found themselves the unexpected beneficiaries of the Turkish Football Federation (TFF) decision to pull Fenerbahce out of the Champions League.

With the Istanbul club caught up in a match-fixing investigation which has seen more than 30 players and officials, including the Fenerbahce chairman Aziz Yildirim and the coach and deputy chairman of Besiktas, jailed pending trial in connection with alleged manipulation of 19 matches, the TFF bowed to pressure from Uefa to act.

The federation, which took the decision at an extraordinary board meeting, has already postponed the start of the Turkish season by a month until 9 September so its ethics committee can investigate the match-fixing allegations.

The federation said last week it would not take decisions regarding those clubs linked to the investigation until the court has accepted the indictment and lifted a secrecy rule.

And last night the European governing body’s Emergency Panel acted swiftly and decisively to replace Fenerbahce with Trabzonspor, the runners-up in the 2010/11 Turkish league, in the draw for the Uefa Champions League group stage. Trabzonspor will then be replaced in the Europa League by their opponent in the play-off, Basque side Athletic Bilbao.

As a result tonight’s second leg of the tie in Turkey, with the score at 0-0 from last week, has been cancelled.

Commenting on the UEFA Emergency Panel decision, Uefa General Secretary Gianni Infantino said last night: “The panel considered that the Turkish Football Federation took the right decision to protect the game, fully in line with our zero-tolerance policy against match-fixing.

“The Turkish Football Federation has shown with this decision that it takes its full responsibility in the fight against corruption.”