ARSENAL: WHAT HAPPENS IF FENERBACHE ARE BANNED FROM THE CHAMPIONS LEAGUE?

The draw for the Champions League play-off round took place earlier today in Nyon, with Arsenal now set to play Fenerbahce in a few weeks time. The first leg will be played in Turkey on August 21st, with the return leg set for August 27th at the Emirates Stadium. Under normal circumstances, the team with the best aggregate score over the 2 games will go through to play in the group stages of the Champions League proper. However, as is so often the case with Arsenal nowadays, things are not that simple!

Both Fenerbahce and Besiktas are currently involved in ongoing arbitration procedures at the Court of Arbitration for Sport, having initially been banned from European competitions for 24 months by UEFA due to a match-fixing scandal in Turkey. Despite the ongoing investigation, both clubs have been allowed to play in the Champions League & Europa League qualifiers respectively as the bans are not being enforced until a final decision is made at the end of the month. Several Fenerbahce officials were convicted of fixing matches when the club went on to win the 2010-11 Süper Lig, but obviously the club categorically deny any wrongdoing. Below is a quote taken directly from the Court of Arbitration for Sport website that explains the situation quite clearly:

“Due to agreements reached between the appellants and UEFA, the decisions challenged by Fenerbahçe SK and Beşiktaş JK have been stayed and will not be enforced until the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) issues its final decision in each matter.

“This means that Fenerbahçe SK and Beşiktaş JK will take part in the draws of the first preliminary matches of the UEFA Champions League (Fenerbahçe) and of the UEFA Europa League (Beşiktaş)… It is anticipated that hearings will take place in August with a final decision being issued before 28 August 2013 (Fenerbahçe) and 30 August 2013 (Besiktas). “

Arsenal official David Miles then tole the Associated Press that the we are not going to get involved in the politics of the situation and are only concentrating on preparing for the matches:

“We put the politics aside and Arsenal will concentrate on the football side. We will keep in touch with Uefa.”

HOWEVER, the potential ban does rase a number of interesting issues. The CAS will decide whether to enforce the ban but obviously does not get directly involved with the organisation of matches, which is done by UEFA.

 This has lead to the bizarre situation that Arsenal are actually playing Fenerbahce the day before we know whether or not they should even be in the competition. 

The big question I have is what happens if Fenerbahce ARE banned? Two years ago Fenerbahce were forced to withdrawal from the Champions League by the Turkish Football Federation the day before the draw for the group stage and Trabzonspor were restored in their place despite having lost in the qualifiers. I guess the same thing could happen again if we lose the tie.

In my opinion there are two very obvious resolutions to this problem: either delay the Fenerbahce games by a week or so or move the CAS decision forward. That said, I am pretty sure that neither of those is going to happen because UEFA are not the most accommodating or helpful body. Please leave your thoughts on this bizarre situation in the comments section below.