Uefa have charged Lille's players with improper conduct and emphatically rejected the French club's complaint over the validity of Manchester United's winning goal near the end of Tuesday's acrimonious Champions League tie between the clubs in Lens.
The French club had argued that the match should have been replayed - a suggestion laughed off as "crazy" by Alex Ferguson - after Ryan Giggs scored a quickly taken free-kick seven minutes from time to secure a potentially pivotal first-leg advantage.
The Lille players claimed they were not ready, having been waiting for referee Eric Braamhaar to blow his whistle, and responded by kicking the ball out from the restart and threatening to walk off the pitch.
Their coach, Claude Puel, later explained that the players were apparently citing an obscure and particular rule applicable in French domestic football known as "reserve technique", whereby a team - most usually their captain - can lodge a formal complaint with the fourth official over a controversial decision at the first subsequent break of play.
"But the fourth official didn't understand what we were saying to him," said the Lille midfielder Mathieu Bodmer at the time, with the rule not applicable in the Champions League.
However, that apparent willingness to leave the turf has prompted Uefa sanction.
"Having examined the official referee's report, the television evidence at hand as well as the laws of the game, the Uefa control and disciplinary body decided to reject the protest as there was no proof of a technical error," confirmed a Uefa spokesperson.
"As a result the body declared that the goal was perfectly valid. Furthermore, the control and disciplinary body decided to instigate proceedings against Lille for the improper behaviour of their players after the goal."
"There are many occasions in football when you complain, but you don't walk off the pitch," said Ferguson yesterday. "Lille now have a serious problem."
The French club have the right to appeal that charge, although a second disciplinary hearing has already been scheduled to scrutinise potential breaches of security and safety regulations by the club, as well as allegations of improper behaviour from both Lille and United fans at the game at Lens' Stade Felix Bollaert.
The English club have suggested that tragedy was only narrowly avoided after fans were crushed into a section of the ground, which was used at the 1998 World Cup finals, with the French retorting that early distribution of tickets allowed high-quality fakes to be produced.
That claim has been rejected by United, who will cite the poor quality of tickets provided by the French club, although the stadium's head of security, Damien Vanoise, has accused visiting fans of sparking the problems with their "violent behaviour".
Those arguments will be aired at a separate meeting of the control and disciplinary body on March 22nd, while Lille have until midnight on Monday to appeal against the decision to veto their protest.
Rangers will fight the one-match ban imposed on goalkeeper Allan McGregor after his dismissal in the Uefa Cup victory over Hapoel Tel Aviv.
McGregor was red-carded within seconds of Barry Ferguson putting Rangers 3-0 in front on the night and 4-2 on aggregate during the last-32 match.
McGregor appeared to push De Bruno, but Rangers believe they can make a case and will state their position to Uefa's control and disciplinary body on Wednesday.
Guardian Service
