Scottish Premiership side Celtic "should find out" its Champions League future by Thursday, according to the BBC. Polish club Legia Warsaw met with UEFA on Wednesday morning to "appeal their expulsion." A Legia statement said, "The atmosphere during the meeting was fully professional and the club's representatives were granted the possibility to thoroughly present their stand on the issue." Legia beat Celtic 6-1 over two legs in the third qualifying round "but were then punished for fielding the ineligible Bartosz Bereszynski." Legia hopes UEFA "will reduce the sanction or 'even nullify it altogether'" (BBC, 8/13). The Scotland DAILY RECORD reported Legia "earlier called on UEFA to follow its own 'football first' principle" when deciding its case after an appeal to Celtic's traditions of fair play was met with "disappointment" by the Glasgow club, which has insisted "it is a matter for the European governing body" (DAILY RECORD, 8/13).
POLISH FA CHIEF SPEAKS OUT: In Glasgow, Craig Swan reported Polish FA Chair Zbigniew Boniek has branded Legia Warsaw "incompetent -- as fresh evidence from key figure" Bereszynski on Tuesday "blew a gaping hole in his club's appeal to UEFA." Bereszynski reportedly "raised the suspension issue with Legia hierarchy" before the game. Polish sources revealed that Warsaw keeper Dusan Kuciak "tipped his team-mate off to a potential problem before the Murrayfield clash but that Bereszynski was assured by the club he was clear to play." Boniek has "been critical of Celtic's refusal to have dialogue but insisted Legia only have themselves to blame." Boniek: "The guilt does not lie with UEFA or Celtic but with Legia. The people who are responsible for it have turned out to be completely incompetent" (DAILY RECORD, 8/13).
FORMER PLAYER RIPS CELTIC: In Glasgow, former Celtic player Dariusz Dziekanowski has launched a "blistering assault on his former club Celtic by branding them 'the laughing stock of world football' and insisting they will only go on to shame themselves on the field again should they be given the green light to remain in the Champions League." Dziekanowski, who works as a UEFA delegate, has been "appalled by the refusal of the Parkhead management to indulge in any form of dialogue with Legia Warsaw" (HERALD SCOTLAND, 8/13).
