Uefa slaps Bursaspor, Ekranas, CFR Cluj and Astra Giurgiu with bans and fines for unpaid bills

GENEVA // Turkey’s 2010 league champions Bursaspor were one of four European clubs fined Monday and barred from playing in the next Uefa club competition they qualify for over unpaid bills.

Uefa said in a statement that its Club Financial Control Body (CFCB) had decided to sanction Bursaspor, Ekranas of Lithuania, and Romanian clubs CFR Cluj and Astra Giurgiu “for overdue payables.”

The clubs had been accused of having “important overdue payables towards other clubs, employees and social and tax authorities”.

In 2012, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) overturned a previous Uefa ban against Bursaspor over unpaid transfer fees amounting to 300,000 euros.

But Uefa said Monday that exclusion would now come into effect, meaning the Turkish club would be blocked from taking part in “the next Uefa competition for which it would otherwise qualify” through 2019.

“This new exclusion applies unless the club is able to prove by January 31, 2015 that it has paid the amounts that were identified as overdue payable on September 30, 2014,” it said in a statement.

The club was also fined 100,000 euros, but half of that would be lifted if the club could prove it had paid its overdue bills, it said.

CRF 1907 Cluj and FC Astra Giurgiu were also excluded from the next Uefa club competitions they qualify for through 2018, unless they can show by the end of January that their overdue bills had been paid.

CRF 1907 Cluj was also fined 150,000 euros, while its compatriot was fined 100,000.

FK Ekranas was meanwhile banned from participating in the next UEFA club competitions it qualifies for over the next two seasons and was fined 15,000 euros, UEFA said.

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