What’s the Difference Between UEFA Cup and Nothing? Ask Belenenses.

By: Greg | April 30th, 2008

The Portuguese Football Federation’s Council of Justice has handed down its verdict in the case of Belenenses’ illegal transfer of Cameroonian striker Meyong. They have found that the infraction that Meyong and Belenenses are guilty of is the FIFA regulation stating that a player may not be registered for three clubs in a given season. This campaign, Meyong has gone from Albacete of the Spanish second division to Levante in the Spanish primera and ending up (albeit illegally) at Portuguese SuperLiga side Belenenses.

This would have been Meyong’s second stint at the club for which he tallied seventeen goals in 05/06 and laid claim to the title of the league’s top scorer. While featuring for a number of Iberian club sides, he also played for the gold medal winning Cameroon side at the 2000 Sydney Summer Olympics.

Losing a viable striker aside, Belenenses are now being penalized six points, effective immediately. Also as a result of the findings, Naval are being awarded a win from a match in which Meyong scored the game-winning penalty.. This match ended 2-1 and took place back on January 13th. The result will be modified to a 3-0 Naval win and we now also have movement up to complement Belenenses’ slide down… So why don’t we have a quick peek at a truncated, sunrise version of the table, and a condensed, sundown version, shall we?

This morning:
2 - Sporting – 49 **Champions League**
3 - V.Guimarães – 49 **Champions League, Qualifiers**
4 - Benfica – 48 **UEFA Cup**
5 - Belenenses – 42 **UEFA Cup** Wait, can we have that spot back?
6 - V.Setúbal – 42 **UEFA Cup** (Spot from Taça de Portugal, given Sporting’s present position)
7 - Marítimo – 40 **Intertoto Cup**
8 - Braga – 37
9 - Boavista – 35
10 - Nacional – 32
11 - Académica – 31
12 - E.d.Amadora– 30
13 - Naval – 30 …Gooooinnng up!
14 - Leixões – 26
15 - P. Ferreira – 24 **Relegation**

Annnndd… This evening’s version:
2 - Sporting – 49 **Champions League**
3 - V.Guimarães – 49 **Champions League, Qualifiers**
4 - Benfica – 48 **UEFA Cup**
5 - V.Setúbal – 42 **UEFA Cup**
6 - Marítimo – 40 **UEFA Cup** (Spot from Taça de Portugal, given Sporting’s present position)
7 - Braga – 37 **Intertoto Cup**
8 - Belenenses – 36
9 - Boavista – 35
10 - Naval – 33
11 - Nacional – 32
12 - Académica– 31
13 - E.d.Amadora – 30
14 - Leixões – 26
15 - P. Ferreira – 24 **Relegation**

Obviously the big winners here are Marítimo, Braga, and Naval. Marítimo move into a UEFA Cup spot, Braga are thus into the Intertoto Cup spot, and Naval go from a team that had mathematical potential to be relegated before this past match to a team that can qualify for Europe.

In perhaps a weird, cosmic, karmic kind of way, Belenenses have been on the winning and losing end of regulatory issues in the past few years. While their loss in this arena is obvious (see above), their win came back before the previous season when they filed a complaint against Gil Vicente FC about using an illegal player (Mateus). As a result, instead of Belenenses being relegated, Gil Vicente were sent down and Belenenses proceeded to finish fifth last season and qualify for the UEFA Cup. A little more than a year ago, a handsome, sharp-witted blogger wrote a little more about this when doing a profile of Belenenses, here’s a link.

Today, I will be taking a half day from work to trek into Manhattan to Nevada Smith’s as I watch Chelsea triumph (0-0 draw would be fine too) in the semi finals of their Champions League clash with Liverpool. If you haven’t been, Nevada’s is a must-visit destination for any football fan. If you have, then that’s cool too. Keep the blue flag flying high. Let’s go Chels.