This competition just got prestigious again
Sign of a great team that can beaten badly but still progress to the next round. This is victory for Celtics Legal team.
Take that you cheating Swiss Sionist cunts. You never have the Bhoys beaten 
I see from UEFA.com that Celtic were awarded both games as 3-0 wins. From my research those results count towards our coefficient too so we have 2.3 coefficient points for this season. That’s more than we got for last season (1.5 on our own for winning games and 0.72 from our city colleagues).
Any chance UEFA could award those six goals to Samaras to bump up his value in the next transfer window? There could be some gullible managers out there who could be fooled into paying over the odds for a proven European goalscorer.
Just checking into this thread to say:
When I see you Celtic…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c60Q32cFDlk&feature=related
Bring it on! Let’s take heart from Denmark in 1992 and go on and win this thing.
Hun Gordon Dalziel on Radio Clyde with some cracking double standards in the past couple of weeks:
The Sion chairman is a legend. He says this morning that they’re going to travel to Madrid on 15th September and try to get into the stadium to play Atletico. :lol:
It was reported today that Sion didn’t lodge their appeal with UEFA in time.
ESPN are showing Celtic in Madrid next Thursday night.
Any news on Shamrock Rovers? I thought there was to be an announcement about whether Tallaght was passed by UEFA but I didn’t see or hear anything yet.
Great news for Rovers and John Delaney doing excellently for Irish football again too. Well done all.
Shamrock Rovers have been given the go-ahead to play their Europa League Group Stages at home in Tallaght Stadium, after the venue was given the green light by UEFA today.
Following an inspection of the ground by UEFA officials on Tuesday the Tallaght venue was approved for the upcoming group games.
The first game takes place on Thursday, 15 September against Rubin Kazan, with a 6.00pm kick-off.
Rovers chairman, Jonathan Roche expressed the club’s delight at the news.
He said: "It is wonderful news for us as a club, but also for the Tallaght area. We were pushing hard to have the games played at Tallaght and are delighted that UEFA have given us the go-ahead.
“We are very grateful to the FAI, particularly chief executive, John Delaney and the licensing department, and to South Dublin County Council for the great support and assistance they have given us to be able to have these games in Tallaght.”
John Delaney, Chief Executive of the FAI also welcomed the news, saying: “We are delighted to have been able to assist in this process and thank UEFA for this decision, which will allow Shamrock Rovers to play their Europa League fixtures at their home venue.”
Ticket information will be available later this evening at www.shamrockrovers.ie.
Uh oh. Still not comfortable in my own mind that Celtic will play in this. From STV:
Sion have lodged their appeal against their expulsion from the Europa League and will learn on Tuesday, September 13 whether UEFA will reinstate them in the competition.
The Swiss club were made to forfeit their two play-off round ties with Celtic following a decision of the Control and Disciplinary Body last Friday, with the SPL side progressing to the group stages.
Sion though have now formally contested that decision and will receive their final answer from UEFA next week. If unsuccessful, the Swiss club have a further right of appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
As it stands, Celtic are in Group I of the Europa League and are due to play their opening match in Spain against Atletico Madrid on September 15. Rennes and Udinese are also in their pool.
Sion lost two cases in the Swiss courts on Thursday, with a tribunal in the canton of Valais ruling in one case that it did not have the jurisdiction to judge against UEFA, who are based in the canton of Vaud.
A collective case brought by the ‘FIFA Six’ of Pascal Feindouno, Gabri, Stefan Glarner, Mario Mutsch, Jose Goncalves and Billy Ketkeophomphone in a court in Martigny was also unsuccessful, ruling that it was Sion and not the players themselves who had been excluded from UEFA competition.
Speaking to STV on Thursday, Sion president Christian Constantin said he would continue to fight the decision through the courts, even if the Europa League started without them.
“It’s not finished,” he said. “We might not make it to Madrid but perhaps after that the justice system might ask the competition to stop and allow our re-integration.
“You can start the competition and then a judge might say stop.”
Citing events in 2003, when the Swiss Challenge League reinstated Sion 12 games into the second tier in addition to the existing 16 members, Constantin suggested their inclusion in the Europa League wouldn’t have to lead to Celtic losing their place.
“Without necessarily excluding Celtic, a judge may require UEFA to reinstate us in the middle of the competition,” Constantin told Le Matin.
Your man Constatin is a lunatic. Not the first time he’s been involved in court cases with Sion.
I don’t think there’s a chance UEFA will overturn the original verdict. From what I read they contested based on the precedent established in Roma’s case (after Mexes) where the ban ended mid-transfer window. Roma were banned from signing players for a define period of time however, Sion have been banned for a defined number of transfer windows. It seems fairly clear-cut from UEFA’s perspective.
Harder to know with CAS as they are more likely to consider the legitimacy of UEFA’s rules whereas UEFA will just decide on how to apply their own rules. Highly unlikely they’d finish on time though and I imagine what Sion will ultimately end up looking for (but not getting I think) will be financial compensation as opposed to reinstatement.
Atletico Madrid are currently 1-0 down away to Valencia. Was going to scout them but got caught up with the tennis and boxing so gave it a miss. Not hugely impressed by their starting lineup actually.
Has Falcao played for them yet?
Falcao’s playing tonight all right, Totti.
All I can say is at least Majstorovic is suspended, the new left back is cup-tied, I believe.
Yes, he’s definitely out. Presume Mulgrew would go left back but not sure who’d take over in the centre - Loovens was only back on bench duty today.
Ah, throw the Dutch poof in. He’ll be fine.
:ph34r:
Don’t think Falcao has played yet.
Valencia were much the better team in the bits I saw anyway. Had a goal wrongly disallowed in the first half and though they didn’t have a whole load of chances they were very much on top. I expect they’ll still be better than Motherwell but probably not as strong as St Johnstone.