UEFA has excluded Osasuna from participating in the Conference League next season, even though the Spanish club managed to win a ticket to return to European competitions.

According to the announcement from the Spanish club itself, the punishment came after some of the team leaders in 2013 were involved in match-fixing.

“The club learned this afternoon the conclusions of the report drawn up by the inspectors of the Control, Ethics and Disciplinary Committee of UEFA. In the said report, the inspectors declare the club’s ‘ineligibility to participate in the 2023-2024 UEFA Conference League’, thus denying it the right to participate in the European competitions it has rightfully won on the field “, it is said initially in their reaction.

“The reason goes back to some events that happened in the 2013-2014 season and which, in UEFA’s opinion, contradict Article 4.1 of the competition regulations.”

“The article in question reads as follows: ‘Not being involved directly and/or indirectly, since the entry into force of Article 50(3) of the UEFA Statute, i.e. on 27 April 2007, in any activity aimed at to organize or influence the outcome of a match’”.

“UEFA inspectors consider that the decision of the Supreme Court that convicts some former directors of the club is sufficient reason to exclude Osasuna, nine years after the events, from European competitions. This, despite the fact that the same punishment is the product of the complaint made by the current club managers in 2015 and the result of Osasuna’s work as a private prosecutor throughout the judicial process to prosecute those who deviated, for unclear purposes”.

“The club does not share UEFA’s criteria, it will appeal to the Appeals Committee and announces that it will fight legally, until the last consequences, to protect its rights”, the reaction states.