Sports court to announce Trabzonspor verdict this month

By Selcuk Kilic

TRABZON, Turkey (AA) - A hearing in the trial of Turkish football club Trabzonspor's European ban was held on Thursday, with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to announce a ruling by the end of July.

The trial was held online due to the novel coronavirus pandemic as Trabzonspor executives, including chairman Ahmet Agaoglu, and the club's legal expert Eda Lermi Zorer attended the six-hour hearing.

Earlier, UEFA banned Trabzonspor from European competitions for one year for failing to meet financial targets.

"The CFCB [UEFA Club Financial Control Body] Adjudicatory Chamber has now determined that Trabzonspor AS failed to meet the target fixed for the 2019 financial year," UEFA said on its website.

UEFA monitors clubs financially to make sure they are not spending more money than they earn, a measure created to help teams avoid financial problems in the long-term.

The Financial Fair Play (FFP) criteria involves break-even targets, sporting measures and financial contributions.

UEFA said that Trabzonspor would be barred from one UEFA competition in the 2020/21 or 2021/22 football seasons once the Turkish team qualified for the UEFA Champions League or Europa League.

It added that in July 2019, the CFCB determined that the club "failed to be break-even compliant as required by a settlement agreement, which it entered into on 20 May 2016."

The UEFA's financial authority said that it previously informed Trabzonspor that the club would face a one season ban in the upcoming term if they could not meet the financial target for last year.

Following the UEFA decision, Trabzonspor appealed to the CAS.