Feyenoord thrown out

Feyenoord have been thrown out of this season's UEFA Cup after crowd disturbances at a group stage match at AS Nancy, UEFA said yesterday.

The Dutch side were due to host England's Tottenham Hotspur in the first leg of the first knockout stage on Feb. 15.

During the trouble in France on Nov. 30, tear gas was used to control rioting Feyenoord fans who spilled on to the pitch. The match was suspended for half an hour.

Feyenoord had been fined 200,000 Swiss Francs ($164,200) and given a suspended sentence to play two matches in an empty stadium UEFA's independent Control and Disciplinary Board.

However, UEFA called for a harsher punishment with the organisation's chief prosecutor appealing against the decision.

"The fact we appealed showed we weren't happy with the original mild verdict. Everyone is talking about zero tolerance," UEFA spokesman William Gaillard told Reuters.

Feyenoord said they could go to the Court of Arbitration for Sport to try to reverse the decision.

"We could appeal against the verdict to the CAS. We will take that decision after we have studied the arguments that led to the verdict," Feyenoord's financial director Onno Jacobs said.

"This is a severe blow for the club in every way and in this situation there are only losers. We explained that we warned UEFA and the local authorities about a group of people who travelled on their own authority. We could not take responsibility for people we don't know."

UEFA said it would decide on Monday whether Tottenham would get a bye or face Wisla Krakow, who finished fourth behind third-placed Feyenoord in their group, in the round of 32.

Wisla were the last club to be thrown out of European competition for crowd trouble in 1998, a UEFA spokesman said.

When Feyenoord and Spurs met in the 1974 UEFA Cup final second leg, Tottenham fans rioted and many were injured as the Dutch side won 2-0 to lift the trophy 4-2 on aggregate.