According to their own statements, the Spanish first division soccer team CA Osasuna may take part in the coming season of the Conference League.
In an appeal before the International Court of Arbitration for Sports, the European Football Union UEFA has withdrawn the exclusion of the club from the smallest European competition because of match-fixing from 2014, the club from the northern Spanish city of Pamplona announced.
The background to the dispute, which was settled after two months, was one of the most sensational manipulation affairs in Spanish football. Osasuna representatives are said to have transferred money to two professionals from Betis Sevilla in the relegation battle so that they could make an extra effort against Osasuna rivals Real Valladolid on the penultimate day of the 2013/2014 season. Three years ago, a court sentenced several professionals, officials and entrepreneurs to prison terms, some of them long. These were the first prison sentences for manipulation in Spanish football.
CA Osasuna had already pointed out in a first objection, which UEFA had rejected, that the Spanish judiciary had described the club as a “victim” of the machinations of a few officials in the criminal proceedings in spring 2020. UEFA has now accepted the club’s position and new evidence, it said. The club from the Navarre region had qualified for the next edition of the Conference League for the first time after finishing seventh in the Primera División last season.