ATLETICO MADRID president Enrique Cerezo admits he has been left disappointed by the club’s failure to prevent next week’s Champions League home match against PSV Eindhoven from being played behind closed doors.

Atletico had appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport against the punishments handed out to them by UEFA for crowd incidents during their home European game against Marseille on October 1.

However, CAS only partially upheld the appeal, meaning that while Atletico’s original fine has been halved to 75,000 euros and their suspended second stadium ban lifted, the club must face PSV without any supporters in attendance.

“I’m disappointed because we hoped to succeed with our case and clear ourselves of these accusations, but this decision leaves us in no doubt about the situation now,” said Cerezo, who revealed he did not expect the ruling. “It’s difficult because when you have done nothing you don’t have to fear anything bad. Now there is nowhere and no-one left to turn to.”

UEFA had initially given the Spanish side a three-match ban from their Vicente Calderon stadium, with one deferred, and told to play at least 300km away from Madrid for incidents against Marseille.

Those incidents included outbreaks of violence between Marseille fans and Spanish police after the authorities removed a banner that featured a prohibited symbol, as well as accusations from OM officials and players that they had received racial abuse from Atletico fans.

Atletico were also fined 150,000 euros while coach Javier Aguirre was handed a two-match touchline ban. Atletico appealed to UEFA against those punishments, which allowed their home Champions League match against Liverpool on October 22 to go ahead unaffected until the appeal was heard.

The Rojiblancos’ bid to UEFA was ultimately only partially successful, with European football’s governing body reducing the punishment to a two-match behind-closed-doors sentence, with one match deferred for two years, while upholding the fine and touchline ban for Aguirre.

Atletico are currently level with Liverpool on eight points at the top of Group D, five points clear of both Marseille and PSV with two games remaining.