FILE PHOTO: Soccer Football - LaLiga - Atletico Madrid v Osasuna - Metropolitano, Madrid, Spain - May 21, 2023 Atletico Madrid's Jose Gimenez, Antonio Gomis, Axel Witsel, Antoine Griezmann and Rodrigo de Paul applaud fans after the match REUTERS/Violeta Santos Moura/File Photo
(Reuters) - Osasuna will play in Europe's third-tier Conference League in the upcoming season following an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), the LaLiga club said on Tuesday.
Osasuna were excluded from the competition by continental soccer body UEFA at the beginning of July due to a match-fixing scandal from a decade ago.
Under UEFA rules any team implicated in match-fixing since April 2007 can be excluded from the next European competition they qualify for. Osasuna have not qualified for a UEFA competition since the 2006-07 season.
"In view of the new evidence provided by the club ... UEFA has concluded that Osasuna was a victim of the events that occurred almost a decade ago and has valued the initiative carried out by the institution to clarify them," Osasuna said in a statement.
"Consequently, UEFA considers Osasuna suitable to participate in this edition of the European competition."
Osasuna, who finished seventh in the 2022-23 season, will therefore participate in the Conference League playoff round draw on Aug. 7.
The games will be played on Aug. 24 and 31 and the winners of the two-legged ties will advance to the Conference League group stage.
Osasuna added that UEFA has opened a disciplinary procedure against Osasuna for going to ordinary justice in the process, which will not prevent the club's participation in the competition.
"The club will accept the penalty imposed by UEFA, before which it will not file an appeal, and has expressed its commitment to the highest body of European football not to raise issues of the sporting field to ordinary courts," Osasuna said.
(Reporting by Anita Kobylinska in Gdansk; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)
