Topics: Champions League, UEFA, Football
Five clubs have been banned from competing in the UEFA Champions League/European Cup in the tournament’s history.
The UEFA Champions League is widely considered to be the most coveted trophy in club football, with Real Madrid boasting 15 titles – the most of any club.
Paris Saint-Germain won the 2024/25 edition of the competition with an emphatic 5-0 victory over Inter Milan in Munich back in May.
And the early stages of the 2025/26 campaign are already underway, with Rangers set to take on the Czech side Viktoria Plzen in the first leg of the third qualifying round on Tuesday evening.
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Heading into the group phase, champions PSG will no doubt be confident of retaining their crown, while usual big hitters Barcelona, Bayern Munich, and Liverpool will likely reach the latter stages.
But some teams have had the privilege of competing in the Champions League taken away from them due to various reasons.
Five clubs have been banned from the Champions League by UEFA in the competition’s history.
Turkish giants Besiktas were banned from UEFA competitions in 2013 after involvement in match-fixing.
The club then lost their appeal as the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) upheld a UEFA-imposed one-year ban.
Fellow Istanbul outfit Fenerbahce were also handed a three-year UEFA ban in 2013 for reported match-fixing, and like Besiktas lost their appeal at CAS.
Serie A giants and two-time European champions Juventus were suspended from UEFA competition for the 2023/24 season after the club were found guilty of breaching Financial Fair Play (FFP) rules by UEFA between 2012 and 2019.
In 2009, North Macedonian side FK Pobeda were hit with an eight-year UEFA ban for match fixing, which was upheld on appeal by CAS.
UEFA’s life ban on then-club president, Aleksandar Zabrcanec, also stood.
More recently, in July 2025, Montenegrin club FK Arsenal Tivat were banned from European competition for ten years and slapped with a €500,000 fine following an investigation into “alleged violations of the UEFA Disciplinary Regulations” during a match between Alashkert FC and FK Arsenal Tivat in July 2023.
On a wider scale, English clubs were banned from competing in Europe for five years following the Heysel Stadium disaster in 1985, which resulted in the death of 39 people during the European Cup final between Juventus and Liverpool in Brussels, Belgium.
Liverpool were banned for an additional year until 1991.
