Bartosz Bereszynski is a name which Celtic fans which will remember from now on as he was the ineligible player who came on in the 88th minute he was suspended after being sent off in last years Europa League.
Legia Warsaw won the tie 6-1 on aggregate after winning 2-0 at Murrayfield on Wednesday after their 4-1 first leg win in Poland. So bringing on an ineligible player for the final 2 minutes has cost Legia Warsaw a place in the Champions League and all the financial benefits that come with it and Celtic are now in the Champions League playoff round getting Slovenian side Maribor in today’s draw.
It has to be said it is a major let off for Celtic who looked to be going without the Champions League football for this season, one Celtic fan has even gone as far as getting the ineligible players name on the back of his Celtic shirt.
I thought I would take a look back at more famous ineligible player stories:
1) First of all there was the weird story of Javier Mascherano and Carlos Tevez’s transfers to West Ham in 2006. When they signed it was seen as a major coup as the two were seen as real prospects and were both Argentina internationals.
Later on in their first season (2006/07) it was found they were owned by a third party which is forbidden under the rules in the Premier League and as such should not of been playing for West Ham. They both played a vital part in keeping West Ham up including Tevez scoring the goal which kept them up at Old Trafford.
They were fined £5.5m by the Premier league and paid Sheffield Utd £15m as they were the team which went down at the expense of West Ham and Tevez’s goal, but should they of been deducted points and therefore relegated?
2) Then there is the story of the Gambia National Team. They had been banned from all levels of Confederation of African Football for 2 years which means they cannot take part in the African Cup of Nations etc as they were accused of fielding a total of 5 ineligible players in the Qualifiers for the 2015 African Under-20 Championship as they were over the age of 20 some were allegedly more than just slightly over the cut off age.
3) Finally in 2011 Torquay United and Hereford United both fielded ineligible players in the same League 2 fixture when Jake Robinson and Rob Purdie should not of been playing as they were both ineligible. They both played the full 90 minutes with Robinson scoring the first goal for Torquay in a fixture which Hereford won 3-1. Hereford were deducted 3 points and Torquay were deducted 1 point for the offences.
Source: DSG
