Atletico Madrid will have to play Wednesday’s Champions League match against PSV Eindhoven behind closed doors after sport’s court of arbitration (CAS) partially upheld a punishment handed down by UEFA for crowd trouble.
CAS ruled that the punishment should stand because of “serious security breaches” during a Champions League match against Marseille in Madrid on October 1.
However, it overturned a suspended second match behind closed doors and reduced a UEFA fine of €150,000 by half because it said there was not enough evidence to support allegations Atletico fans made racist chants.
In its original ruling, UEFA said failures in Atletico’s organisation had prompted confrontations between Marseille fans and police.
The club pleaded its innocence of all charges and took its case to CAS which ruled after a hearing on Wednesday.
“Having examined the arguments and evidence submitted by the parties, the CAS Panel, in line with UEFA, concluded that Atletico Madrid committed several serious security breaches during the match against Olympique Marseille which allowed the incidents to occur,” the court said in a statement.
CAS said the fine had been reduced by half “in light of the fact that the racist acts alleged by UEFA could not be established with certainty”.
Atletico said CAS had backed its assertion “100 percent” that there had not been any racist chanting.
Atletico defender Mariano Pernia said it was “unbelievable” that they would have to play the PSV match in an empty stadium.
“It’s unthinkable that we’ll be playing in our stadium but without our supporters,” he said on the club’s website www.clubatleticodemadrid.com). “It will be incredible because that is one of the things that drives us on the most.”
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