Azerbaijani club Turan excluded from the Conference League over match-fixing case

Azerbaijani club Turan from Tovuz will not be able to take part in the next edition of the UEFA Conference League. UEFA has excluded the team from European competitions due to past violations related to match-fixing.

At the end of the season, Turan Tovuz finished third in the Azerbaijani championship and earned the right to start in the second qualifying round of the Conference League. For the club, this was supposed to be a historic return to the international stage: the last time the team played in European competitions was more than 30 years ago, in the 1994/95 season, when it faced Turkish side Fenerbahce in UEFA Cup qualifying.

However, UEFA ruled that the club did not meet the admission criteria for European competitions. The reason was a 2019 case, when several Turan players were at the center of an investigation into match manipulation. At that time, the Association of Football Federations of Azerbaijan handed lifetime bans to seven players of the team from any football-related activity.

According to UEFA regulations, a club cannot be admitted to European competitions if, within the last ten years, it has been directly or indirectly involved in activities aimed at arranging or influencing the outcome of matches. This specific provision became the key factor in the decision regarding Turan.

The club has already announced that it intends to challenge the decision at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). If the appeal is rejected, Turan’s place in the second qualifying round of the Conference League will be taken by Neftchi, while Zira will begin its campaign from the first qualifying round.