UEFA Vice President Hryhoriy Surkis has called on fans and officials of FC Metalist Kharkiv to stop an information campaign launched to cast doubt on the credibility and impartiality of the European agencies of football justice.

"After the verdict by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, based on which the UEFA Appeals Body disqualified FC Metalist from European club competitions for one season, some Ukrainian media launched a large-scale information campaign. It is aimed at questioning the credibility and impartiality of the European agencies of football justice, as well as the fairness of the sanctions imposed by them on the Kharkiv club," Surkis said in a statement, which was released on the football Web site pressing.net.ua on Thursday.

"Unfortunately, Metalist's official representatives, both some officials of the club and those who defended its interests in various courts, could not refrain from participating in this planned campaign. This largely aggravated the creation of unreasonable passion around CAS decisions and stimulated the expression of aggression and disrespect towards UEFA," he said.

Surkis said that now that an end has been put in all procedural stages of this case, it's time to calm the emotions and appeal to common sense. This means that the functioning of one of the best Ukrainian teams must return to the competition track.

"In this regard, I can only welcome sensible calls by the leadership of FC Metalist to fans, despite the fact that not all of them listened to these words of sense," he said.