Fc Porto Have Been Thrown Out Of Next Season's Champions League

Portuguese champions Porto have been thrown out of next season's Champions League over alleged bribery of referees in the 2003-04 season.


The allegations relate to Porto's 2-0 win against Estrela da Amadora and their 0-0 draw with Beira Mar, during the season in which Jose Mourinho's side won a domestic and European double.

The club has already confirmed it will appeal against Uefa's decision.

Last month, Porto were found guilty by the Portuguese league and fined 150,000 Euros and docked six points, but they decided not to appeal against that decision as they still won last season's title by 14 from runners-up Sporting Lisbon.

Uefa director of communications William Gaillard told BBC Radio 5 Live: "We have taken this decision because a Portuguese court has actually sentenced FC Porto and its president.

"The president has appealed against the decision but the club itself has not appealed and therefore this is a sentence that stands and under our statutes, we felt obliged to ban them from next year's Champions League.

"I don't think it will affect Porto's status as champions of Europe in 2004, this is not something that has come up in the recent debates that we had among our legal experts.

"Porto can appeal within three days of receiving the motivations of the sentence, if it lost that appeal of course we would then replace Porto with the runners-up."

Previously Milan were excluded from the Champions League in 2006 following the investigation in to corruption in Italian football. However, on appeal, they were reinstated and went on to win the competition.

Boavista were relegated to the second division for their part in the match-fixing.