FC Rostov an unlikely challenge

Survive a relegation battle by the skin of their teeth, make the most of their second opportunity to stay up and haven't looked back since. Sound familiar? no it's not Leicester city instead it's FC Rostov, Russia's unlikely title challenger. Currently FC Rostov are second in the table two points behind powerhouse CSKA Moskva. There a nine rounds left to play and such has been the crazy season in Russia, 7th placed Krasnodar are nine points off top spot.

Not one of Russia's more famous clubs, FC Rostov have never won the Russian title and before this season their highest placing in Russia was the respectable 6th achieved in 1998. Since the break up of the Soviet Union, Rostov have been a mainstay in the top division. With the exception of the two relegations of 1993 and 2007, they have stuck around the mid table safety of the league. They have tasted success in the recent past however. In 2013-14 FC Rostov won the cup for the first time in their history. Founded in 1930 they floated in and out of the Soviet First league and it was their 4th place finish in the final season of the First league that allowed them to compete in the first ever Russian championship. 

As for European football well Rostov are very inexperienced with the concept. They have only competed in European competition in three seasons. Two of which were in the now defunct InterToto cup. In their first season in Europe they reached the semi-finals of that InterToto cup losing to Juventus rather heavily having dispatched FK Cementarnica of Macedonia and Croats NK Varaždin. That was in 1999 and they competed again the following year but were out when Auxerre overcame their challenge. It wouldn't be until 2014-15 after winning the cup when they would be on the European scene again. Just like 2000, it was brief and they were eliminated at the play-off round of the Europa league by Trabzonspor. 

Rostov can they win the title?
source: Sergey Pivovarov / Sputnik

So what has happened this season?. Well they have in simple terms made the most of their opportunity to compete in the top flight. Last season they survived a scare when Torpedo Moskva, well torpedoed up from the bottom of the table to within a point of Rostov who finished 14th. They overcame Tosno in the play off comfortably in the end 5-1 but it took a fight back in the second leg to ensure they stayed up. From there they had a decent start to the season going unbeaten in the opening five games before losing to CSKA Moskva. What really got the confidence going was the run of four straight wins in October/November. Beaten four times this season by teams pretty much in and around them is no shame but its defensively they have really improved. Rostov this season have the best defense in Russia with just sixteen goals conceded from twenty-one games to date. They don't score many up the other end but when they do score its winners and equalisers. 8th placed Ural for example have scored eight more goals than Rostov but are ten points worse off. 

And what about the star performers? well Rostov possess a talented Iranian, well at least for the rest of the season, in Sardar Azmoun. The nineteen year old striker or attacking midfielder has three goals to date as well as two assists. Currently on loan from Rubin Kazan, Azmoun has been attracting interest from western Europe. From what I found it appears Rostov do have a buy option in the loan from Rubin so it would appear he will be joining Rostov permanently and then wait for offers. 

Dmitriy Poloz is Rostov's top scorer this season with seven goals. The twenty-four year old is having his best scoring season of his career. Aleksandr Bukharov, previously with Rubin Kazan is now on Rostov's books and has three goals himself this season. 

The mastermind behind the challenge Kurban Berdyev
source: soccer-bet.ru

Coach Kurban Berdyev has history of this sort of challenge. He guided Rubin Kazan to back-to-back league titles in 2008 and 2009 their first ever top flight league titles, won the cup with them as well in 2012 for the first time as well as the promotion in 2002. This season the coach from Turkmenistan has deployed a 3-5-2 with the back three of Bastos, Ivan Novoseltsev and veteran Spaniard César Navas. A mean defense encouraged by a coach who has done it before with an attack that features young hungry talent. The base of this unlikely challenge from FC Rostov. 

Qatar and naturalization

The Qatari national team is or has been going down the road of naturalization for many years now. It's a potentially murky precedent for international football as down the years they have been looking at players who haven't played or in reality set foot on Qatari soil. The justification that Qatar gives is that they are a country built by foreigners and that there isn't enough talent in the local population to be competitive on the international scene.

Qatar's naturalization of players rose to prominence in 2004 when they were short in the striking department. They were looking for a striker to fire them to the 2006 world cup and none of the striking options at the time provided them with that. It emerged that they made contact with a Brazilian striker enjoying a fantastic season in Germany. Aílton was taking the 2003-04 Bundesliga by storm and it was his goals that fired Werder Bremen to the title. The Qatari authorities were suitably impressed and offered him the chance to play international football, something he realistically wasn't going to achieve with his home nation Brazil. Aílton accepted the offer but a few weeks later FIFA declared he was ineligible to play under new rules bought in to stop national teams effectively buying players for their sides.

Aílton was wanted by Qatar
source: middle-east-online.com

Aílton then 30 had given up hope of playing for Brazil. He was reportedly offered €1.4 million to play for the Gulf state. €1 million in a signing on fee and €400k per year. However he wasn't the only Bundesliga player they were looking at. Borussia Dortmund's Dédé was also offered a similar deal along with his brother Leandro. The new rules bought in to prevent this sort of situation happening put an end to the trio's hopes of lining up for Qatar. 

That wasn't the end of the controversy surrounding Qatar. Four years later they managed to naturalize another Brazilian, but this time it was different. Local side Al-Sadd offered their Brazilian winger Emerson Qatari citizenship after playing two different spells in the Stars league so they could accommodate a foreign signing. That seemingly made Emerson eligible for Qatar since he made no appearances for the Brazilian national side. He made his debut for Qatar in a friendly against Bahrain before taking the field in a world cup qualifier against Iraq. However that was to be the only competitive game

Emerson in his only competitive game
source: Noushad Thekkayil/European Pressphoto Agency

Emerson would play for Qatar. A month later in April 2008 it was revealed that Emerson was in fact ineligible despite gaining Qatari citizenship. He had played for Brazil's under-20 side which FIFA stated ruled him ineligible. As a result, Qatar had breached rules regarding ineligible players but were allowed to remain competing for a 2010 world cup spot as Iraq's file of complaint was sent in too late for FIFA to disqualify Qatar. 

Qatar were more successful with the naturalization of Uruguayan Sebastián Soria. Soria joined Qatari side Al-Gharafa in 2004 and by 2006 he was playing with the Qatari national team. He was given Qatari citizenship after two years playing in the country and was eligible since he made no appearances for any of Uruguay's national sides. Soria is now Qatar's 4th highest ever goalscorer with 29 goals to date and is part of the sides quest to qualify for the 2018 world cup. 

Other naturalized players to play for Qatar are the likes of Fábio César, Luiz Júnior, Lawrence Quaye and in the current squad Dame Traoré, Amine Lecomte, Mohammed Muntari and Boualem Khoukhi. 

Qatar in 2004 launched the ASPIRE academy which was aimed at developing athletes for many sports including football. While there have been a few players to come through this system the naturalization route remains as Qatar's primary source of players. 

Qatar aren't alone in the whole naturalization of many players for the national team. Many African countries have been doing the same for years. The high profile example has been Equatorial Guinea with many Brazilians playing for them. Togo have gone down the route bringing in Brazilians, Many of Togo's naturalized players played when Brazilian coach Antônio Dumas fielded as many as six naturalized players in the qualification for the 2004 African cup of nations and the successful 2006 world cup qualification. In fact when Dumas later became coach of Equatorial Guinea he went down the same route to have eight naturalized players playing for him. 

It's not something that international football needs. We already have club transfers and that should be it. International football should be about players from a particular country doing that country proud. The last thing that international football needs is to mirror what the club game has become. Countries like Qatar, Equatorial Guinea and Togo should be focusing and developing their own players who actually will care about the shirt and country. We have a similar situation in Ireland where some players born in England will have given up the dream of playing for the English national side and throw their lot in for the Irish side instead. These players then take up spots in the national side that could've been taken by locally born players who have the life long desire to play for the country and not when in their mid twenties decid they are Irish. 

Virsliga ploughs on

The Virsliga has gone through change once again this past winter. Last season the league went with eight teams when at the end of the 2014 season FK Daugava and FK Daugava Daugavpils were demoted. FK Daugava would cease existence completely while Daugavpils were demoted to the second division despite having finished 5th. The reason for the later's demotion was that they failed to meet the financial criteria. 

So 2015 started with eight clubs and ended with seven when in June newly promoted FB Gulbene were disqualified from the league on suspicion of match-fixing. From the reports researched for this post it shows that Gulbene's games with Skonto and Spartaks Jūrmala were flagged for betting fraud. In both games Gulbene were beaten heavily, 5-0 against Skonto and 6-0 by Spartak Jūrmala. Gulbene's disqualification saw all their results expunged from league records and ensured that there was no automatic relegation. 

The big beneficiaries of this were METTA/LU, a University side based in the capital Riga. They finished 7th and entered the play-off which was handily won so they kept their top flight status when it might have been in danger had the league remained at eight teams. 

What is also absolutely worth mentioning from the 2015 league season is BFC Daugavpils. They ended up in 6th place free of any relegation trouble and play-offs. They stayed up by recording just two wins all season! In what is surely a record for a league that has the threat of relegation that is a remarkable record. Put into context, METTA /LU finished bellow them having won more games (three in total). 

Skonto denied licence

2016 was supposed to be the season to move on from disturbances in the number of teams participating. While the league as of today remains at eight, there was more instability during the winter. Skonto Riga, the country's biggest and most successful club and holder of the most consecutive league triumphs of fourteen, were denied a top division licence for the upcoming season. It has been well documented that Skonto in recent years have suffered financial difficulty. They were disqualified from the Europa League in 2014-15 due to long term debts but last season were allowed to take their place in the same competition. They beat our own St Patrick's Athletic 4-1 on aggregate before being blown away by Debreceni of Hungary 11-4 in the next round. They finished 2nd last season and would've qualified for the Europa league for this coming summer but their place will likely end up going to Jelgava who were 4th last season. 

They appealed the licensing decision but it was rejected with their league place going to FK Rīgas Futbola skola. 

Skonto were champions in 2010
source: Roman Koksharov

The rejection ends the proud record of Skonto's being the only side to have played in every league season since independence. A trophy filled era with fifteen league titles in total plus eight national cups, seven of which were part of doubles they achieved. Their biggest achievement abroad was by far the 1999-00 champions league campaign. Skonto reached the third qualifying round by comfortably beating Juenesse D'Esch of Luxembourg and then edging out Rapid București which set up a tie with Chelsea. A 0-0 draw in the home first leg set up the night of destiny in Stamford Bridge. A night that was going rather successfully from their point of view, despite a first half red card, until the final quarter-hour when goals from Celestine Babayaro, Gustavo Poyet and Chris Sutton put the champions league dream to bed. That was as close as Latvia has got to the lucrative group stage. It wouldn't be until FK Ventspils European run in 2009-10 that a Latvian side would reach the final qualifying round in the champions league. Ventspils would go on to take part in the group stage of the Europa league that year and end with three points but last place in their group that featured Hertha B.S.C , Heerenveen and Sporting CP. 

This season

The season kicked off two weeks ago. Only two rounds have been played and currently top are Spartaks Jūrmala who are the only side with maximum points. FK Ventspils, as mentioned above the only Latvian club to reach the group stage of a European competition are still going, they have two draws so far while defending champions FK Liepāja occupy the play-off spot in 7th. FK Liepāja are not to be confused with the FK Liepāja Metalurgs side that ended Skonto's fourteen consecutive league titles in 2005. That side were dissolved in 2013 and the current FK Liepāja are a successor club. 

The league will have all teams play each other four times (twice home, twice away) for a total of twenty-eight games. If the league still has its full complement of teams at the end of the season, 8th goes down automatically and 7th goes into a play-off with the 2nd placed 1. līga team. 

Eight to play and it's tight

The title may have been decided weeks ago, it's probably safe to assume the current top four will remain the same and Europa league places are looking settled, but there remains one big thing largely undecided and unlikely to be decided fully until the final day of the season, relegation.
It is no exaggeration to say that half the league are not realistically safe of relegation trouble. In fact 8th placed Málaga are lying just eleven points above the drop zone. It is unlikely Málaga will go down but in recent seasons their current total of 39 points hasn't been enough to stay up. Osasuna in 2013-14 went down with that total but astonishingly in the past teams have gone down with more. Villarreal went down in 2011-12 with 41 points, Betis were relegated in 2008-09 with 42 and amazingly 43 points for Deportivo in 2010-11 wasn't enough to keep them up. The moral of the story is forget the "magic 40 point mark" in La Liga.

This season so far at least no team is adrift in the relegation battle. Levante maybe four points off safety but their performances in recent weeks and the fact that they have games in the next few weeks against direct relegation rivals means they are very much alive in this battle. A late defeat to Deportivo on Saturday however won't do them any favors but a look at their upcoming fixtures presents a real opportunity. Sporting Gijón (h), Real Betis (a), Espanyol (h) and Granada (a) is the scene for Les Grenotes.

Carlos Castro seals the Sporting win against Atlético
source: espn

Sitting above Levante in 19th is Sporting Gijón. The Asturians newly promoted this season will take a massive confidence boost from this weekend. They only went out and beat Atlético Madrid by coming from behind. It could be the catalyst to get them out of danger. They'll need repeat performances of Saturday as they face the likes of Celta, Sevilla and Barcelona in their remaining games.

Getafe are the third side occupying a relegation place but only on the head-to-head. They have an inferior head-to-head record with Granada so that may cause problems for them if the finish level on points in the end, like the currently do now. The other side level on points with them, Rayo Vallecano, they face in the next round of games.

Above the 28 point teams are Las Palmas on 33 in 15th. They have hit form in recent weeks with four wins in the last five games that have elevated them out and clear of the drop zone. More wins are needed and they face mainly sides around them in their remaining fixtures.
In 14th we have a side that weren't expected to be involved in this battle at all, Valencia. Gary Neville has had a difficult start to his managerial career with Valencia and the awful run has seen them involved in this battle. A bad omen for them is that there has been history of sides involved in the champions league getting relegated in the same season. Villarreal 2011-12 and before that Celta de Vigo in 2003-04. So it's not beyond the realms of possibility that Valencia could go down unless they pick up.
Above them Real Betis (34 points), Espanyol (35), Real Sociedad (35), Deportivo (36) and Eibar (38) aren't out of the woods just yet.

Champions & Europa league quarter-final draws

Champions League

Wolfsburg v Real Madrid

Bayern Munich v Benfica

Barcelona v Atlético Madrid

Paris Saint-Germain v Manchester City

Wolfsburg v Real Madrid

Wolfsburg overcame Gent in the last round in what was the battle of the big outsiders. Gent to their credit in the first leg fought back but Wolfsburg's higher quality paid off in the end. Real Madrid saw off Roma in the last round. However this tie is a bye for Real Madrid. I can't see Wolfsburg doing anything to threaten Madrid and as much as I would love to see the wolves get through I think this will be a stroll for Madrid. 

Bayern Munich v Benfica

Bayern Munich survived an epic two legged tie with Juventus to reach this stage. The second leg saw them rescue their champions league campaign with a stoppage time equaliser and then saw off the Italians in extra-time. Benfica were victorious over two legs against a Zenit side lacking match sharpness. However this won't be a competitive tie. Bayern to do the business and seal the tie in the first leg. 

Barcelona v Atlético Madrid

For the third season running Atlético Madrid will meet a fellow La Liga side at this stage. Barcelona were comfortable against Arsenal while Atlético were pushed all the way by PSV Eindhoven. As much as it would be terrific to see Atlético get through I think the potential loss of Diego Godín swings this tie Barcelona's way. 

Paris Saint-Germain v Manchester City

The battle of the nouveau riche clubs. PSG overcame English opposition in Chelsea while Manchester City overcame a Dynamo Kyiv side lacking match sharpness in the last 16. A tie that could go either way but I'll back Zlatan's boys in this one. 

Europa League

Borussia Dortmund v Liverpool

Athletic Bilbao v Sevilla

Villarreal v Sparta Praha

SC Braga v Shakhtar Donetsk

Borussia Dortmund v Liverpool

Well what can be said about this tie. Klopp goes back to his old stomping ground while England's last hope in the competition faces what are most people's favorites for the competition. Dortmund eased past Tottenham while Liverpool overcame the charged clash with Manchester United in the last round to set up what is probably the tie of the round. Not an easy one to predict but I fancy this in-form Dortmund side to get through. 

Athletic Bilbao v Sevilla

Athletic's reward for knocking out La Liga side Valencia was to get another La Liga side, this time the twice in a row defending champions Sevilla. Sevilla overcame a tricky assignment with Basel with relative ease in the end to get to this stage. Now this is a tie that is hard to predict. I'm going to be bold and say an Aritz Aduriz inspired Athletic to get through, just. 

Villarreal v Sparta Praha

Villarreal are my dark horse for the tournament outright and while on paper they may have got Sparta they have themselves a potentialy dangerous opponent. Sparta were not expected to get past Lazio but it wasn't the fact that they got past them that shocked people, it was how they did it. Sparta put Lazio to the sword in Rome winning 3-0. This will not be easy for the yellow submarine. Villarreal overcame Bayer Leverkusen in the last round and I'm going to go their way for this one. 

SC Braga v Shakhtar Donetsk

Two of the outsiders clash in the last quarter-final. However both have made the final of this competition in the last seven years. Braga in 2011 and Shakhtar 2009 when it was in the UEFA cup format. A tricky tie to predict but I think after careful consideration I'm going to side with Braga but only just and possibly on away goals. 

My first Belfast derby

It was a sign that it had to be done the weekend just gone. Cork City were playing away in Derry City on Friday and Saturday afternoon the big two in Northern Ireland of Linfield and Glentoran were playing in Windsor Park. No better opportunity to sample this derby fixture than this.
As it turned out well City were beaten by Derry in what I will describe as a "worrying" performance. Didn't play at all well and got what we deserved, nothing.

Saturday morning it was time to leave Derry and head for Belfast for this derby game. I've been to Shamrock Rovers v Bohemians, the big derby down south in the past so was looking forward to adding this clash to the list. Linfield are the historically dominant team in the Irish league with Glentoran being the second most successful side. The two clubs despise each other. Linfield are based in a very loyalist area south of the city while Glentoran are based in a loyalist area in the east. Linfield this season are chasing down Crusaders at the top of the table while Glentoran are pretty much just playing out fixtures with no chance of going down and no chance of getting Europe.

When I did the Shamrock Rovers v Bohemians derby in 2013 I maintained a neutral stance on the game itself. This one was no different although Linfield did have a familiar face out on the left wing. A certain Ross Gaynor was now whipping crosses in the box for Linfield. Gaynor was a left back predominantly in his time with City he joined us in 2014 in time for that season's title push scoring a wonder strike away at UCD on the way. Played with us in 2015 and left before Christmas to sign for Linfield. Glentoran had one familiar face themselves. Stephen Rice formally of Shamrock Rovers and Longford and the only one on the pitch who can claim he scored against Tottenham Hotspur.

We arrived outside the ground just before the 3pm kick off and by the time we eventually got into the ground the game had started. While scrambling outside looking for someone selling the bloody tickets we heard a cheer from the ground but as it turned out it was a disallowed Linfield goal. So we did get in at 0-0. Your usual hoards of police and riot vans were out in force as was the helicopter hovering above, it all just added a bit of spice to what was for a southerner anyway that bit more intimidating.

We got to the seats anyway just as Linfield were attacking the goal to our left in front of the Glentoran fans. For a derby game the section wasn't exactly full which was a bit strange. The entire stand across from us wasn't in use and the stand to our right wasn't completed. The stand we were in housed the Linfield support. The Blue Unity being on the far side of the stand close enough to the Glentoran fans, excellent for chants.
Linfield took the lead through a penalty that was given for handball which from our view anyway wasn't that clear. Ross Gaynor stepped up and sent Eliott Morris the wrong way, 1-0. Glentoran came out a bit after that but nothing threatening the Linfield goal. They did lack any quality up front. Linfield looked the more threatening throughout the game and then came the flash point. Glentoran's Calum Birney was sent off late on. Still I don't know what happened there. A few minutes later Glentoran's keeper, Morris gave away the ball to Linfield's Aaron Burns and he slotted home to make it 2-0 and game over. That sparked a massive clear out in the away end with flags gone as well. Ross Gaynor added a third in added time to seal a comfortable win.

It was certainly an experience anyway the whole derby. It certainly was felt throughout and probably what did let it down to a small degree was that Glentoran aren't doing as well as they have done in the past. However it was definitely worth it, to see what it was about. The other big fixture in the list is Linfield v Cliftonville which is also very much a derby game between two sides with polar opposite fan bases. Think I'll make that particular fixture next time around.

League of Ireland 2016

The new season begins today as the four month long hiatus ends. In what is one of the longest off-seasons around it's good to have football back. The 2016 season should be an interesting season for many reasons. How will Dundalk cope without top scorer and midfield force Richie Towell?, will Cork City finally go one better?, How far will the Irish sides go in Europe? and will the promoted sides stay up?. So many sub plots and questions that will be answered over the next eight and a half months. The bottom club goes down automatically and 11th place enters the play-off winners between 2nd and 3rd in the first division. Top team goes into the champions league with second and third going into the Europa league. Depending on the cup winners, fourth is also a Europa league place.
So here is how I think it'll go.

1. Cork City
2. Shamrock Rovers
3. Dundalk
4. Bohemians
5. St Patrick's Athletic
6. Sligo Rovers
7. Derry City
8. Bray Wanderers
9. Galway
10. Longford Town
11. Wexford Youths
12. Finn Harps  

Cork City
Call me an optimist or biased but I have a feeling this will be the season we may finally get over the line. The signings made by the club are quiet interesting. Greg Bolger adds some bite to the midfield, Kenny Browne replaces Darren Dennehy, Sean Maguire gives us a bit of pace up front, Eoghan O'Connell is the big name signing on loan from Celtic until June. Gearoid Morrissey is back from Cambridge United and Stephen Dooley gives a wide option. The signings added to what we already had in the likes of Johnny Dunleavy, Alan Bennett, Steven Beattie and Karl Sheppard give me hope that we will be the team to beat. The president's cup victory over Dundalk ended the hoodoo of not beating the Louth side since 2012 and with that monkey off the back this could be a very interesting season on Leeside.

Promoted Teams
Wexford Youths will be playing in the top division for the first time ever this season. They joined the league in 2007 and nine years later are finally at the top table in Ireland. First division champions last season they will be up against it but it is certainly achievable. Last season both promoted clubs (Galway and Longford Town) stayed up.
Finn Harps were also promoted with Wexford Youths. The Donegal side dramatically overcame Limerick in the play-off. Harps haven't been in the top flight since relegation in 2008 and since then it's been a long arduous journey to get back up. Now that they have, the serious work starts here.

Dundalk bowed out to BATE Borisov
source: David Maher / SPORTSFILE

Europe
Last season the same four teams qualified for the European competitions. Dundalk into the champions league and Cork City, Shamrock Rovers and St Pats into the Europa league which also included UCD as fairplay entrants. Last season was generally mixed for Irish sides overall. Both Cork City and St Pats exited in the first qualifying round but that was alongside both Shamrock Rovers and UCD progressing into the second qualifying round.
Dundalk in the champions league were given a mighty tough task of overcoming BATE Borisov. Over the two legs they weren't outclassed but couldn't find a way through BATE in the second leg having gone down 2-1 in Belarus. For Dundalk this summer they will be looking to get a kinder draw than BATE in the second qualifying round.

Potential overachievers
A category that was won by Bohemians last season could well by retained by them again this season. They are my dark horse to get into the top four places which may or may not depending on the cup winners be enough to get into Europe. Last season Bohs pushed St Pats till the final day and they could go one better as Pats have lost some key players.
Other potential overachievers are Galway who are quietly assembling a decent looking team or maybe even Wexford Youths. I have Youths down to finish 11th but in this league predictions rarely come off so watch this space.

Potential underachievers
Sligo won this last season. On paper they had a decent squad that should've yielded a much higher league placing than 10th but this season I think St Pats are going to by my shout for this category. They have lost some key players in Greg Bolger, Kenny Browne and Chris Forrester is no longer around as well.

Karl Sheppard as top scorer? Why not!
source: Morgan Treacy/Inpho

Top scorer
Last season it was Richie Towell with twenty-five strikes from midfield, this season will be fascinating to see. A quick glance through the betting shows Chisty Fagan at Pats as the front runner, others include Mikey Drennan at Shamrock Rovers, Ishmail Akinade at Bohs and City's Karl Sheppard is also mentioned. Probably go for Sheppard in this, biased as I am.

First Division
Sadly it is still just the eight teams making up the second tier. It's as you were from last season with no club pulling out. Limerick will be favorites for the title and I expect them to win it. However outside of that it's the making of quiet a competitive division. Here is what I've gone for here.

1. Limerick
2. UCD
3. Shelbourne
4. Drogheda United
5. Athlone Town
6. Cobh Ramblers
7. Waterford United
8. Cabinteely 

Manchester City/PSG and Galatasaray what is the difference?

Today UEFA decided to ban Galatasaray from all European competitions for one year. The decision comes a week after Galatasaray were eliminated from Europe by Lazio in the last 32 of the Europa League having played in the champions league group stage before christmas. The decision was made as Galatasaray have breached financial fairplay rules. The ban will affect the next competition Galatasaray qualify for and on current form it they may miss out on Europe anyway this season given they are 5th and outside the Europa league places in the Turkish Super Lig.

Galatasaray are not the first club to be banned from Europe under the breach of Financial fairplay (FFP). You might remember a few years ago that Málaga were banned from Europe for a similar offence. They had a two year ban reduced to one but still a ban nonetheless. Now Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) a few months later fell foul of FFP but miraculously they were not banned from competing in Europe. Instead Manchester city and PSG had squad reductions for their champions league campaigns along with a €50 million fine.

Málaga were banned in 2012
source: AFP

So my question here is what is the difference with Galatasaray/Málaga and Manchester City/PSG in falling foul of FFP. Being blunt about it, it's money. Manchester City and PSG can count of billionaire owners and big TV ratings in the champions league. Galatasaray an historically massive club in Turkey don't generate enough money to be considered part of the elite. Galatasaray also don't play in one of the money leagues in Europe so their presence in Europe won't be felt money wise by UEFA. However if they did ban say Manchester City, then they would lose out on the money they bring in by having the likes of Sergio Agüero, David Silva and Yaya Touré in their ranks. 
Galatasaray just don't have the same calibre of players. Sure they have Wesley Sneijder and Lukas Podolski but they don't generate millions upon millions in money for UEFA. 
As for Málaga well it's easy to ban an unfashionable poor Spanish club in the eyes of UEFA. They don't generate anywhere near enough money and so it's easy to ban them. 

Let's not forget that other clubs have been banned too but again they don't play in money leagues where UEFA generate massive hoards of cash. Do you think the likes of Dinamo Bucharest, Dynamo Moskva, Astra Giurgiu, CFR Cluj, Ekranas and Bursaspor matter to UEFA's cash cow. 
If your lucky enough to be among the elite and bring massive money in from TV deals in England, Italy, Spain, Germany and to a degree France then you'll be spared from bans, you'll get a fine that over time will be reduced and probably get a squad reduction in European competition but still be able to play. If your geographically out of the big five leagues, sorry but "rules are rules".