CAS orders return of Platense to the first division of Honduras two years after their claim
The CAS issued its ruling in favor of Club Platense, while the Honduran Football Federation (FFH) said it is analyzing the resolution
The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) overturned Club Platense's relegation and ordered its return to the first division of Honduran football, the Honduran Football Federation (FFH) reported this Wednesday.
"As the governing body of national football and responsible before international jurisdictional bodies, it reports that it has officially received today the award issued by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in the case identified as CAS2023/9890 presented by the Platense club against the clubs Real Sociedad and Honduras Progreso," the FFH indicated in a statement.
The ruling is the result of a legal process initiated by Platense after filing a claim with the National League, which was attended to and subsequently transferred to the Appeals Commission of the FFH, an autonomous jurisdictional body.
The CAS decided to "partially uphold the appeal" filed by Platense, "thus reversing the resolution issued on August 7, 2023, by the FFH Appeals Commission," it stressed.
As part of the decision, the CAS ordered to deduct 7 points from the Real Sociedad club and 5 points from the Honduras Progreso team, both in the accumulated table of the 2021-2022 season.
In addition, it ordered to credit 4 points to Platense in that same classification, which entails "the revocation" of its relegation and orders "its reinstatement" in the First Division of Honduran soccer, no later than the start of the 2024-2025 season.
Platense had been relegated to the Second Division of Honduran soccer after finishing in last place in the accumulated table of the 2021-2022 season, after a campaign marked by poor results: in 35 games they added just 29 points out of a possible 105, with only seven wins, eight draws, and twenty losses.
The controversy that originated Platense's claim arose from alleged irregularities in the registration process of the clubs Honduras Progreso and Real Sociedad in July 2021.
According to Platense's complaint,The first champion of the Honduran Professional League, the National League, allowed both teams to make registration payments outside the deadlines established by the regulations, which, in its opinion, should have invalidated their participation. These anomalies had already been previously warned about by the Victoria club.
The FFH indicated that its Legal Department is carefully analyzing the scope of this international resolution to "determine its legal effects," always acting in accordance with the law.
With this decision, Platense is on its way to returning to the top flight of Honduran soccer, whose Apertura tournament will kick off this Friday with the match between Choloma, the new team in the First Division, and Juticalpa.