Celtic have been handed a Champions League reprieve after Legia Warsaw were punished for fielding an ineligible player in their 6-1 aggregate win over the Scottish champions in the third qualifying round.
Bartosz Bereszynski, who came on as an 86th-minute substitute as Legia won the second leg 2-0 at Murrayfield on Wednesday night, was suspended following a red card for violent conduct in last season's Europa League.
Hours before the draw for the next round was to be made, Uefa announced that Celtic had been awarded a 3-0 win in the second leg, and therefore qualified on away goals after a 4-4 aggregate result.
Celtic will now go into the draw for the play-offs, the final hurdle to reach the lucrative group stages.
“Legia have been sanctioned for fielding an ineligible player (article 18 of the Uefa Champions League regulations and article 21 of the Disciplinary Regulations). The match has been declared as forfeit meaning Legia Warszawa have lost the match 3-0,” a Uefa statement said.
“As a consequence, Celtic have qualified for the Uefa Champions League play-offs on away goals (agg: 4-4) and Legia will compete in the Uefa Europa League play-offs.
“In addition the player Bartosz Bereszynski has been suspended for one additional UEFA competition match for which he would be otherwise eligible. This suspension shall be added to the remaining two match suspension which the player still has to serve in accordance with the Control and Disciplinary Body decision of 13 February 2014.”
Bereszynski was sent off against Apollon in the final match of Legia’s Europa League campaign last season, earning a three-match suspension. He missed both legs of Legia’s tie against St Patrick’s Athletic in the second qualifying round and also sat out the 4-1 first-leg victory over Celtic.
However, it has emerged that Bereszynski had not been registered in Legia’s squad for the second qualifying round, and so the matches did not count towards his suspension.
Celtic will now be among the seeded teams for Friday’s draw.
Legia Warsaw have five days within which to lodge an appeal, and a statement on the Polish’s club website indicated they had requested Uefa’s reasoning for the ruling before making a decision.
Celtic benefited from an ineligibility ruling during the 2011-12 season when they were reinstated into the Europa League group stages despite a qualifying defeat by Sion.
The Swiss side were ruled to have fielded five ineligible players after breaching a Fifa transfer ban and failed to reverse the decision during a lengthy legal battle.
