You also have a reference to Milan and to Juve on your initial post. But i feel those are different cases. The thing was that, when the whole Calcio Caos case blew up, there wasn’t any regulations concerning clubs involved in match-fixing scandals. And since Milan applied to the CL before the regulations were changed, they could not have been banned from the competition. As for Juve, since they were dropped to the Serie B, their first time applying to European Competitions in, in fact, this year. And if UEFA consider banning FC Porto (if they end up guily) they should have already banned Juve (since they were in fact considered guilty, even after all appeals were presented).

Another stupid decision by UEFA was only banning Bastian Schweinsteiger for a single game for pushing a Croatian player (and getting a red card), and at the same time banning the turkish GK Volkan Demirel for two matches for doing exacly the same thing.
Schweinsteiger went on to scoring against Portugal, also adding two assists to his name.
Does this sound akward at all? Maybe it’s just because I’m portuguese

“And as for Portugal – you only have the most effective player in the world, and the most outrageous coach ”
touché

Thanks for commenting, hopefully this won’t be your last.

I realise what you’re saying – but my point in the first place is that UEFA have to be responsible enough to take intelligent decisions and not make knee-jerk decisions designed purely to appease the masses.

Take it this way – if UEFA hadn’t banned Porto in the first place the furore would have been huge, regardless of what the real facts were. As it happened, the ban settled the issue outside Portugual and only then did UEFA investigate all the facts (why they didn’t talk to FC Porto before banning them and why they didn’t apprise themselves of da Costa’s appeal is beyond me). This methodology either depicts gross misconduct or pandering to the media. Either way, doesn’t do much for their reputation.

As for Porto – I hope they’re cleared, although the idea in itself (bribing refs with prostitutes) is too funny.

And as for Portugal – you only have the most effective player in the world, and the most outrageous coach

Long story short, the case against FC Porto going on portuguese courts is not finished yet. So being, UEFA cannot decide on a ban from European competitions. Once the case is finished, and if FC Porto are in fact sentenced for what they have been accused of, then UEFA can speak their mind on the subject. Not before that.

The whole thing was that, even though FC Porto did not appeal on their own behalf, FC Porto’s President (Mr Pinto da Costa), being also acussed on his own name, did in fact appeal himself. And being that both cases are in fact linked (due to several evidences, situations, people involved), if later on Mr Pinto da Costa ends up clearing his name, then the club will also be relieved of any guilt on the matter.
UEFA’s decision of banning FC Porto from the Champions League came after several documents were sent by the Portuguese FA. But these documents withheld (due to poor translation) the fact that the decision on the whole case was not final (why this is the case, is explained on the previous paragraph). So being, and thinking that the case was over, UEFA promptly moved to the decision of banning FC Porto from it’s competitions.
After FC Porto gained access to those documents, they contacted UEFA and made their case. UEFA, realising that they could not decide on anything without any final result coming from the investigations going on in Portugal,they pulled the ban, and everything went back to where it started.

So being, UEFA did not, in fact, go back on their decision. They just realised that there actually wasn’t a decision to be taken. At least for now. At least with the proven facts so far. We’ll see what happens in the future.

cheers
joão

(from Portugal.. only 10 Million habitants, but home to the best coach, and the best football player in the world. strange hum?)