Debrecen goalkeeper Vukasin Poleksic lost his appeal Thursday to sport's highest court against a two-year ban for links to a Champions League match-fixing plot involving the Hungarian team.
However, the Court of Arbitration for Sport cleared Poleksic's teammate, defender Norbert Meszaros, and overturned his 18-month ban from European football.
Meszaros is now likely to seek compensation from UEFA after missing the entire season, his lawyer Andor Leka told The Associated Press.
Poleksic's case is the first proven attempt to corrupt the lucrative group stage of world football's most-watched club competition.
''It has been proven to its comfortable satisfaction that there had been contacts between the player and the members of a criminal group involved in match-fixing and betting fraud,'' the CAS panel ruled.
The court upheld UEFA's decision to suspend Poleksic because he failed to report that fixers approached him before playing Fiorentina in October 2009.
Hungarian champion Debrecen conceded four first-half goals to its Italian opponent and lost 4-3.
CAS said it could not be proved that the result was manipulated, but UEFA rules require players and officials to report corruption attempts.
Leka, who represented both players, said Poleksic was ''was very, very sad and terribly embittered'' by the verdict.
''From a professional point of view, I can't really give him any encouragement,'' the lawyer said by telephone.
Poleksic, a 28-year-old Montenegro international, is sidelined until his two-year ban expires in June 2012. UEFA also fined him ?10,000 ($14,800).
The UEFA sanction applies only to Europe, though FIFA will be asked to extend it globally.
Meszaros was cleared because UEFA's evidence failed to prove ''to the comfortable satisfaction'' of the panel at a hearing in March that he violated rules, the court said.
The 30-year-old player had been banned through December 2011 and fined ?7,000 ($10,400), but can now resume his career.
''I am sure we will file compensation claims against UEFA'' on Meszaros' behalf, Leka said, without providing further details.
Poleksic and Meszaros fought their appeals alone but have trained with Debrecen since they were suspended by UEFA last June.
''The team has been receptive to our intentions,'' Leka said. ''We will clear up his situation next week and hopefully (Meszaros) can return soon to the pitch.''
Debrecen is fifth in the league with four matches left.
Club director Geza Roka declined to discuss the players' future.
''We have only seen the brief ruling from CAS. We will wait until we translate and study the full ruling before we comment,'' Roka told the AP.
Debrecen reached the group stage of the Champions League for the first time last season, earning ?9 million ($13.4 million) in prize money from UEFA. The team lost all six matches it played against Fiorentina, Liverpool and Lyon.
The plot was discovered as part of Europe's biggest-ever criminal probe into match-fixing being led by German police from Bochum working alongside UEFA.
Investigators ''revealed that a criminal gang was planning to manipulate the (Debrecen vs. Fiorentina) match within the framework of an organized betting fraud,'' CAS said.
Thursday's ruling confirms UEFA fears that match-fixing linked to betting scams and organized crime is a growing threat.
In Bochum, members of a Croatian-led syndicate are currently on trial charged with helping fix dozens of matches across Europe, including one World Cup qualifier and games in UEFA's second-tier Europa League competition.
Last year, CAS upheld UEFA's verdict finding Macedonian club Pobeda guilty of arranging to lose a Champions League qualifying round match in 2004.
Pobeda was excluded from European competitions for eight years and its former club president banned for life from involvement in football.
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Associated Press writer Pablo Gorondi in Budapest, Hungary, contributed to this report.
