Feyenoord Thrown Out Of Uefa Cup

The Phantom

Tottenham's next Uefa Cup opponents Feyenoord have been excluded from this season's competition. Uefa has banished the Dutch club after the crowd trouble at French side Nancy on 30 November.

The group stage game had to be stopped for half an hour because of trouble in the stands as Feyenoord trailed 3-0.

Feyenoord were set to play Tottenham in the last 32 knockout stage of the Uefa Cup but Spurs are now likely to get a bye into the next round.

Feyenoord had originally been fined £81,000 and handed a suspended sentence to play two matches in an empty stadium.

The decision was taken by Uefa's independent Control and Disciplinary board, but European football's governing body appealed the decision for a harsher punishment.

BBC SPORT.

God

Super Moderator

Aww that sucks for them. They worked hard to get into the UEFA cup and because of some idiots, they cant do much to advoid trouble anyway its up to the fans and security not the club, they lose their spot?

K Jay

It sucks because this never happened to Inter 3 years back, seems like double standards to me, both UEFA and FIFA have never been consistant when tackling hooliganism and crowd issues and they always seem to take a "commercial" view over a standard ruling.

But besides that a bye might not be the best thing for Spurs, I think they need a morale boost and a european night might have been the catalyst for getting them back on track. Still one step away from the quarter-finals of a eropean trophy is never a bad thing.

I had a sig, once.

Crocker

Its the clubs responsibility to employ the security

J-M

good for us if we get a bye into the next rnd

zbtmontoya

What were the crowd issues??

The Phantom

Feyenoord were playing Nancy and play was suspended for more than 30 minutes following crowd trouble at the Marcel Picot stadium. The trouble occurred after Nancy raced to a 3-0 lead against 10-man Feyenoord, who had Royston Drenthe sent off late in the second half.

The Dutch fans tried to smash the glass barriers in the stands and threw seats at stewards. The game was stopped on 78 minutes and played to a finish after the delay.

I think UEFA should be applauded for this action, however, they have set the bar up there now. Anymore crowd trouble like this and they'll have to take the same action, even if it is a supposedly bigger club.

The Phantom

It's been confirmed today that Spurs will get a bye. However this saga may not be over since Feyenoord look certain to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

Feyenoords Financial director Onno Jacobs said: "We don't feel we should be punished this way, there's an overall feeling the punishment is not justifiable."

Pending the appeal, Spurs will go through to the next round where they will play either Braga or Parma.

A Uefa statement confirmed: "Tottenham have received a bye into the Uefa Cup round of 16 following the exclusion of Feyenoord."

Uefa's other option was to order Spurs to play Wisla Krakow, who finished behind Feyenoord in the group stage.

Spurs will lose revenue from gate receipts and television money, but will gain prize money for getting closer to this season's final in Glasgow.

Tottenham boss Martin Jol misses out on a trip to his homeland, but had earlier claimed Spurs should receive some compensation for the loss of income.

Jol said: "My chairman thinks that if we want to play in Europe we should play in Europe. He's right because it was a big tie against Feyenoord and hopefully we'll get some compensation but other people may think differently."

zbtmontoya

That's pretty harsh punishment for a crowd uprising.... Its not the teams fault, even if they supply the security. And if it was that bad they would have either cleared the entire stadium or not finished the game.

But they are setting a standard to make a point with fans that this won't be tolerated.

J-M

go us...

we gonna win the cup now.