Celtic - reinstated into the CL

[Kmac84]

UEFA have a duty to the paying fans, the sponsors, the TV companies, etc., to provide a product that isn't a complete farce.

They have, there are rules Legia broke them.  You may not agree with the punishment but there is precedent for this sort of issue. 

The real farce here imo is that the Champions of respective leagues had to play against each other to allow teams not good enough from other countries to get into the "champions league"

[kinboshi]

Didn't say I disagree with the punishment or not.  Legia broke the rules, and should be punished in one way or another as is deemed suitable.

Doesn't detract from the fact that UEFA are incompetent.

[Ironside]

oscar pistorius has sacked his legal team and is hiring celtic to help
after all they lost 2 legs and still came out victorious

[Teacake]

Didn't say I disagree with the punishment or not.  Legia broke the rules, and should be punished in one way or another as is deemed suitable.

Doesn't detract from the fact that UEFA are incompetent.

They were competent in this case though, Legia were punished exactly as their rules specify.

[Kmac84]

Didn't say I disagree with the punishment or not.  Legia broke the rules, and should be punished in one way or another as is deemed suitable.

Doesn't detract from the fact that UEFA are incompetent.

They were competent in this case though, Legia were punished exactly as their rules specify.

+ 1

[Ironside]

got to say it wasn't celtic that appealed the result warsaw pointed out the error themselves

[kinboshi]

Didn't say I disagree with the punishment or not.  Legia broke the rules, and should be punished in one way or another as is deemed suitable.

Doesn't detract from the fact that UEFA are incompetent.

They were competent in this case though, Legia were punished exactly as their rules specify.

No, they weren't competent. They let it happen in the first place.

Yes, they applied the rule correctly, but if they were adequately competent they would have a process in place to prevent this from happening and thus avoiding the negative consequences to stakeholders.

[Kmac84]

Didn't say I disagree with the punishment or not.  Legia broke the rules, and should be punished in one way or another as is deemed suitable.

Doesn't detract from the fact that UEFA are incompetent.

They were competent in this case though, Legia were punished exactly as their rules specify.

No, they weren't competent. They let it happen in the first place.

Yes, they applied the rule correctly, but if they were adequately competent they would have a process in place to prevent this from happening and thus avoiding the negative consequences to stakeholders.

Are you just arguementative or genuinley lacking of some cells.  Its not UEFA's responsibility to check every squad handed into them.  FFS man get a grip. 

[samurai]

UEFA have a duty to the paying fans, the sponsors, the TV companies, etc., to provide a product that isn't a complete farce.

They have, there are rules Legia broke them.  You may not agree with the punishment but there is precedent for this sort of issue. 

The real farce here imo is that the Champions of respective leagues had to play against each other to allow teams not good enough from other countries to get into the "champions league"


Can't agree here. The only farce is that a team lost 6-1 and still qualify. No?

[Kmac84]

UEFA have a duty to the paying fans, the sponsors, the TV companies, etc., to provide a product that isn't a complete farce.

They have, there are rules Legia broke them.  You may not agree with the punishment but there is precedent for this sort of issue. 

The real farce here imo is that the Champions of respective leagues had to play against each other to allow teams not good enough from other countries to get into the "champions league"


Can't agree here. The only farce is that a team lost 6-1 and still qualify. No?

No its the Champions League not the runners up, 3rd place or 4th placed team in some overhyped league competition. 

There should be absolutely no reason why Celtic as champions of Scotland have to play 3 qualifying games to get to the group stages when other countries get slots handed out automatically. 

It is not the fault of Celtic that Legia Warsaw messed up. 

Personally I'd rather we weren't in the Champions League given how bad we played in the 2 legs and I firmly believe it has given our board a home run and they are let off scot free for a complete lack of investment and for appointing some 2-bob manager with no track record.  Football fans by and large are a fickle bunch who are able to spot fault with every other club barring their own.  I was encouraged to see some sort of mini uprising amognst the Celtic support on Wednesday Evening/Thursday Morning by fans sending back season tickets and saying listen why should I spend £500 + per season when the product is getting worse, I can pick and chose the games I go to because Rangers aren't in the league and I only buy a season ticket to gurantee Champions League tickets.  When Celtic send out their begging letters in May telling fans its renewal time they do so with the promise that funds will be spend on improving the team.  This is clearly not happening. 

A former Celtic player Darren O'Dea sent out a decnt tweet other day and it kind of summed up things for me I can remember word for word but it was something along the lines of Wanyama, Hooper, Ki, Ledley, Samaras, and possibly Foster and VVD too much quality out and not enough coming in. 

Celtic have always been more than a football club to me and to many of our fans but the heart and soul has been ripped out of it by the mercenaries in charge.  It is by sheer accident that I find myself supporting the same team as neo-liberals like Desmond, Lawell and O'Brien.  I gave my season ticket up a number of years ago for a number of reasons but mostly because I didn't agree or support the way the board were moving our club.  I know there are a few Irish boys on here and they could probably tell you more about Desmond and O'Briens doings but both of them are wrong'uns and are not the sort of people I want associated with my club. 

In the 1990's O'Brien and Desmond were implicated in clandestine payments to secure telecommunications licences from the Irish government which they sold on for vast profits.

More recently O'Brien has been showing interest in securing government contracts related to water charges and metering in the 26 Counties.

O'Brien also does his very best to avoid paying tax to the Irish treasury.

Denis O'Brien is a member of the secretive Bilderberg Group, a shadowy CIA-linked organisation which brings together world leaders and business people to discuss 'strategy' in regard to the exploitation of economic and political interests.

I also believe one of the main reasons John Reid was brought onto the Celtic board was to allow Desmond access to his little black book. 

Brother Walfrid must be spinning in his grave.

I know I have gone off in a whole new tangent but to me it's all the same.  I am not revelling in the fact that we are back in but at the same time I'm not going to call out UEFA on this one for making the correct decisions.  I know they are woeful in many areas of the game, I don't agree with this rule but the punishment given is inline with previous rulings. 

[arbboy]

Do valetta get in every year automatically to the group stages then as well because they are champs of Malta?  Then get drilled 12-0 in every group stage game?  They have to qualify for a reason.

[samurai]

The reason the Scottish champions have to play the qualifying matches is because of the poor recent record of Scottish clubs in European competitions. Such are the competition rules.
So if you're happy for UEFA to kick Legia out by applying their rules you can't complain about playing the qualifying matches.
Personally I think it's a bigger disappointment that a team can win easily and not progress following an incident that made absolutely no difference to the result than that a team with a very average record in recent years doesn't get handed a place in the group stages at the expense of better sides.

That said it's not Celtics fault and any side would be happy to still be in. So good luck them!

[Kmac84]

Do valetta get in every year automatically to the group stages then as well because they are champs of Malta?  Then get drilled 12-0 in every group stage game?  They have to qualify for a reason.

If they are champions then yes.  Why should Lollerpool/Arsenal/Chelsea get in when its the Champions League? 

I'd personally prefer we go back to a straight knock-out comp.   Instead of catering to greed. 

[kinboshi]

Didn't say I disagree with the punishment or not.  Legia broke the rules, and should be punished in one way or another as is deemed suitable.

Doesn't detract from the fact that UEFA are incompetent.

They were competent in this case though, Legia were punished exactly as their rules specify.

No, they weren't competent. They let it happen in the first place.

Yes, they applied the rule correctly, but if they were adequately competent they would have a process in place to prevent this from happening and thus avoiding the negative consequences to stakeholders.

Are you just arguementative or genuinley lacking of some cells.  Its not UEFA's responsibility to check every squad handed into them.  FFS man get a grip. 

I won't drop to your level of ad hominem attack, you clearly are unable to see a very clear point that others have also mentioned and agreed with.

Yes, UEFA should be able to run every team sheet handed to them though a very simple system that checks a database in seconds and tells them if there are any ineligible players named. The club can then be punished if necessary, but at least the integrity of the game is maintained and it isn't rendered null and void.

You say I'm lacking brain cells by expecting UEFA to check that teams playing in their competition are abiding by their rules? Yeah that sounds like a bonkers idea to me...

Referees count the number of players on the pitch before a match. Surely that's for the teams to get right, why would the UEFA officials have to do that? Why not wait until after the match and then watch a video of it and punish any infringements retrospectively?

[Teacake]

So UEFA are incompetant because they don't have a process in place to stop something that has pretty much never happened before in literally 1000s of their games. If this was some complicated process that was being repeatedly breached then fair enough but it simply hasn't been an issue.