Legia less appealing, Man City under-grad

Surprised we got two in yesterday, as Manchester City under-grad, Jason Denayer, signed for a year-long loan last night.  The 19-year-old has yet to play first team football so is likely to be considered as backup at Celtic, though reports are promising.

Not surprised that Legia Warsaw have lodged an appeal to Uefa to be re-instated into the Champions League, they have to try everything possible.  It has not been confirmed what ground Legia have appealed on, however, at the weekend, Polish FA chief exec, Zbigniew Boniek, suggested an appeal would be made on two grounds:

That only one member of the UEFA Control, Ethics and Disciplinary Body was at the hearing to made the decision, and

That Legia were not given the chance to make a submission to the Body.

There are 10 members of the Disciplinary Body and rules state that decisions require the attendance of at least three, unless the case is “urgent”, when a decision can be taken by one member.  To defend their process, Uefa need to insist that the circumstances were urgent, probably citing the Champions League play-off draw, which was due to take place two hours later.

While the Disciplinary Body allow submissions to be made prior to a hearing, Article 34 authorises the Body to undertake a hearing without submissions and “in the absence of one or all of the parties”.

In the unlikely event Legia won an appeal on procedural grounds, a subsequent hearing, perhaps with more Disciplinary Body members in attendance, would take place, and would inevitably reach the same conclusion.

Article 21, paragraph 2, of the Uefa Disciplinary Regulations state, “A match is declared forfeit if a player who has been suspended following a disciplinary decision participates in the match.”  There is no ambiguity or lateral for the Disciplinary Body to exercise a different reprimand.

Legia’s appeals can carry on all the way to the Court of Arbitration for Sport but Celtic will not be involved in any future issues.  NK Maribor represent a vastly, vastly, greater risk to their Champions League aspirations.