Arsenal FC President and member of the Executive Board of the Football Association of Montenegro Dejan Kandić commented for Radio Tivat after the draconian sanction - the expulsion of the Tivat team from European competitions for 10 years and a fine of half a million euros.
Arsenal was fined for match-fixing against Armenian side Alashkert in the 2023 Conference League qualifiers, and neither the players nor any club official were spared severe punishments.
"For us, the club, this represents a huge challenge and we will continue the legal fight to confirm what even UEFA does not deny, which is that our club is not the organizer of dishonest acts. We did make major mistakes and we should be punished for that, but not this draconian," said Kandic.
Club representative Ranko Krgović and player Nikola Čelebić were banned from football for life, and footballers Ćetko Manojlović, Radule Živković and Dušan Puletić will each have to spend 10 years out of the sport.
"We remind the public that we are the initiators of this fight by filing criminal charges immediately after the second match with Alaškert, or the first information. We are convinced that the second-instance UEFA body or, in the extreme case, the court in Lausanne will mitigate this punishment. We have learned from our mistakes, we have improved many things in the organization of the club, and therefore we believe that we will not be punished like this. If the club had participated in the organization of dishonest acts, it would certainly have been relegated to the lowest rank, but the fact is that we were not, which proves the club's innocence as well as the lack of disciplinary proceedings against the club president or members of the board of directors, which all together speaks of the innocence of Arsenal as a football collective," said Kandić.
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