FK Pobeda players celebrate a goal in a match from July 2005

The Court of Arbitration for Sport has upheld an eight-year Europe-wide ban imposed by Uefa on Macedonian club FC Pobeda for match-fixing.

Uefa's life ban on club president Aleksandar Zabrcanec also stands.

However the life ban imposed on the player involved, Nikolce Zdraveski, has been overturned on appeal.

The investigation centred on a Champions League qualifying tie between Pobeda and Armenian side Pyunik over two legs in July 2004.

Charges were brought against Pobeda due to reports of irregular betting patterns and statements from a number of witnesses taken.

CAS ruled that "the evidence brought by Uefa was sufficient to establish that the matches between Pobeda and Pyunik were fixed."

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The CAS statement continued: "The involvement of Mr Zabrcanec was recognized by the CAS Panel and, as a consequence, the responsibility of FK Pobeda was also confirmed."

However, the arbitrators were "not satisfied by the evidence brought forward by Uefa against Mr Zdraveski".

After exploring betting irregularities, Uefa's disciplinary panel ruled in 2009 that the two men had fixed the outcome of the qualifying match in which Pobeda conceded three goals in the first half during the home leg. Pobeda drew the second leg 1-1 in Armenia, losing 4-2 on aggregate.

Uefa said when bringing the charges that Zabrcanec and Zdravevski were suspected of "manipulating the outcome... to gain an undue advantage for themselves and a third party."

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