Nyon, Switzerland  - Macedonian football club FK Podeba was banned for eight years from European events by the ruling body UEFA on Friday over a match-fixing scheme.

The UEFA disciplinary committee ruled that Podeba deliberately lost a Champions League qualifying match in 2004 against Armenian club Pyunik.

UEFA said that club president Aleksandar Zabrcanec and the team's former captain Nikolce Zdravevski were handed life bans because they fixed the outcome of the game in a betting scheme. (dpa)