Russian club Dynamo Moscow have been banned from participating in next season’s Europa League for breaking UEFA’s Financial Fair Play rules.
UEFA confirmed the punishment on Friday due to losses made by Dynamo in each of the last three years.
The capital club reached the last 16 of the Europa League in the campaign just ended before losing to Napoli, and their fourth-place finish in the Russian Premier League saw them qualify for the competition again next season.
Dynamo bosses said they expected such a verdict but were upset with the European football ruling body’s decision.
“We’ll live without European football next season,” the R-Sport news agency quoted Dynamo deputy president Gennady Soloviev as saying.
“It’s a serious blow for our club’s image.”
“We expected this but were hoping to escape such a rigorous punishment. Dynamo will not appeal because it’s useless.”
Press reports claim that Rubin Kazan, who finished the season in fifth place, will replace Dynamo in the Europa League.
But Rubin chiefs said Friday that they have not received any UEFA notice about their participation in the tournament.
“For the moment we haven’t got any UEFA notices,” Airat Garayev, Rubin general manager told ITAR-TASS news agency.
“Without it we’d like to refrain from any detailed comments on the case.”