UEFA inspectors recommend Osasuna's expulsion from the Conference League

UEFA has communicated this Friday to the Osasuna board of directors that its inspectors have recommended the expulsion of the Navarrese team from the next edition of the Conference League. This decision has been taken as a sanction for match-fixing in 2013.

The inspectors consider that the ruling of the Supreme Court that condemns several former directors of the rojilla entity is sufficient reason to exclude Osasuna, nine years after the events, from European competitions.

The Navarrese club, which argued before UEFA that it appeared as a private accusation against the managers accused of match-fixing, now has the possibility of presenting new allegations before the Appeals Committee before a final resolution is produced.

“Strong with the weak, weak with the strong”

The Navarrese club has stated, through a statement, that it does not share UEFA's criteria, so it will appeal to the Appeals Committee. The entity has also announced that it will fight legally, “until the last consequences, to defend its rights”, understanding that it is being denied “the right to participate in European competitions that has been fairly earned in the field”.

Osasuna considers that UEFA is “strong with the weak and weak with the strong”, and has added in its letter that “the courts of UEFA have not wanted to take into account that it was the Spanish courts themselves who have declared, literally, that Osasuna has been the victim of the diversion of money carried out by some of its former directors behind the back of the highest governing body of the entity, the Assembly, and of the control mechanisms of the club itself.

In addition, the rojillo team has indicated that the highest body in European football intends to “punish Osasuna again in the figure of its current managers, who are precisely the ones who filed a complaint in court, beginning the judicial procedure.”

“Perhaps we are facing the only known case in the recent history of European football in which a club legally persecutes some of its former managers, who are currently pending prison terms,” explained the Navarrese club.

Responsibilities to the RFEF

After highlighting that “the damage to the entity's image is very serious”, Osasuna regretted that this damage has also occurred “with the silence of the main Spanish football organizations, including the RFEF”. He has also denounced “continuous self-interested leaks, on a national level, to certain media outlets and journalists to build a story that sacrifices the weak to favor the strong.”

“We are prepared for the worst, but not to set aside the motto that has accompanied us in the reconstruction of the club for the last nine years: Osasuna never gives up,” said the Navarrese club, which announces that it will defend their rights and of his hobby. “With the same zeal with which they encourage us every weekend, with the same effort with which our players and coaching staff have deservedly earned their place in the next edition of the Conference League”, he underlined.

The entity concluded its statement stating: “We believe so much in what we do, and in how we do it, that we cannot allow Club Atlético Osasuna to be used, with the acquiescence of those who in 2014 looked the other way, to solve the problems of others”.