Club that could gain from rivals’ UEFA Conference League ban releases statement
A club recently shared a response after UEFA announced that a team has been banned from playing in European competitions next season.
Just days after Crystal Palace won the Conference League with a 1-0 win over Rayo Vallecano in Leipzig, UEFA suspended Azerbaijani club PFK Turan Tovuz from next season’s tournament. Although Turan Tovuz hasn’t played in Europe since 1994/95, they received the ban because of past match-fixing issues.
The club explained in a statement that the ban comes from a 2019 disciplinary case where seven players were suspended by the Azerbaijani Football Federation (AFFA) for being involved. After hearing the verdict, PFK Turan Tovuz said they plan to take the necessary legal steps and will appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) hoping to overturn the ban.
Meanwhile, the team is continuing its usual preparations and will travel to Turkey for a training camp this month. This situation also affects other Azerbaijani teams — for example, Zira could benefit from it.
Zira’s press secretary, Elmar Abdullazad, told İdman.Biz that they haven’t received any messages from AFFA or UEFA yet. “Right now, Zira is focused on getting ready for the new Azerbaijan Premier League season,” he said. “We haven’t gotten any official notice. Honestly, we haven’t seen a situation like this before where one club takes another’s place in European competitions. I believe we will get official news from AFFA or UEFA first, and then we can talk more about it.”
If the ban stands, Zira could join Europe after finishing fifth in the Azerbaijani Premier League. Neftchi came fourth but have already earned a Conference League spot. Sabah won both the league title and the Azerbaijan Cup, securing their spot in the Champions League. Qarabag, with the most UEFA appearances from Azerbaijan, will play in the Europa League after finishing second, nine points behind Sabah.
As for Crystal Palace, who won the 2026 Conference League, they were originally supposed to play in last season’s Europa League but were moved down to the Conference League because of rules about ownership linked to Lyon. Despite this, Palace made the most of it and went on to win the Conference League, celebrating European success in Oliver Glasner’s last match as their coach.