Manchester United's slender chance of being reinstated in the Champions League looks to have been snuffed out after football bosses in Switzerland docked 36 points from rebel club Sion for fielding ineligible players.
The Swiss Football Association (SFV) was threatened with expulsion from all competitions by world football's governing body FIFA if they failed to punish Sion, who were kicked out of the Europa League by UEFA earlier this season after fielding players they had signed during a transfer embargo.
The SFV were FIFA told the SFV there would be a blanket ban on Swiss football if action was not taken by January 13.
Sion have now been docked three points for each of the 12 Swiss league and cup matches any one of the six ineligible players appeared in. They had been third in the Swiss top flight with 31 points prior to the sanction.
The SFV said in a statement on their official website www.football.ch: "The central board of the SFV has withdrawn 36 points from Super League club FC Sion. The board has therefore met the requirements of FIFA from December 17, 2011."
FIFA had demanded on December 17 that "all matches in which the relevant players participated shall be declared forfeit or three points shall be deducted respectively".
The announcement - subject to ratification from FIFA - means FC Basle will remain in the Champions League and ends any hope of a reprieve for Manchester United, who were knocked out by the Swiss side.
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It's for the best!! How embarrassing would that have been if you lot had snook back in there?
Thank goodness for that - a "back door" reinstatement to the CL would have been an embarrassment.
Glad that is over, didnt deserve to go through on our performances and this method would have been embarrasing. concentrate on the league now. Happy New Year to all fellow reds
Good, I was looking forward to Ajax and a possible trip to Bilbao if we get past them.
quite right too united do not deserve to be in the knockout stages for the simple reason that their whole cl campaign this season was ABYSMAL
We didn't deserve to be there honestly. We're just not good enough to be in Europe's elite league at the moment.
Avid readers of the back pages of the UK press has already read almost all the Man Utd stories that appear here. I realise there are only so many stories out of a club each week. But surely every so often you can send a reporter to get your own interview (and not a rehash of a magazine interview, match day programme, SAF press conference).
Even one exclusive a season would be welcome, you know, a hot tip off from a source that Utd will be buying so and so such that whe it happens you can say "as reported exclusively by The MEN". I believe it is called a scoop.
Perhaps it's time to bring back the great MEN editor, Sir Harold Evans.
good, dont want to go back in dont deserve it-end of
United got what they deserved in the CL. It would have been a travesty if Basel had lost out. Besides already booked my trip to Amsterdam.
Thats good ! we weren't good enough to qualify and didn't deserve to get a reprieve.
I am a United Fan but I must say this is a relieve because we were going to be laughing stocks for taking the "Back Door" back to the Champions League. Glory Glory Man United
We were knocked out fair and square, we did not deserve our place in the K/O rounds of the CL, lets get on with the job at hand, trying to win league title #20 and having a good crack at the Europa and FA Cup's. We do need a few signings, be it sooner (January)) or later (in the summer)..the world will not end if we do not win any silverwera this season..the team is certainly changing and is can take a season or two before the next powerful squad will be ready to go.
Even the Swiss aren't being rolled over by united! !!! !
We didn't deserve to get to the knockout stages anyway. Should've walked that group, really.
WHO CARES.
Could we have this bit again, in English, please? "The SFV were FIFA told the SFV there would be a blanket ban...."
Thats a good thing. Utd in all conscienceness could never have re entered the Champions league after being knocked out! Lets concentrate all our energies into Defending our title.....
36 points??? You gotta laugh. Relegation is what they deserve to be fair.
None of us wanted to be put back in anyway...
It was widely agreed on earlier articles by Reds that we felt we didn't earn nor deserve to progress in the competition.
Glad for Basel.
Clutching at straws or what?
Out of CL
Out of League Cup
Soon to be out of FA Cup
Out of PL race by April
Any silver polish going cheap?
straws. clutching. desperate.