Legia Warsaw, disqualified in dramatic circumstances from the Champions League by UEFA last August, saw their appeal dismissed on Thursday by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

The Polish club routed Scottish giants Celtic 6-1 on aggregate in the third qualifying round, but were then booted out for fielding an ineligible player.

Bartosz Bereszynski was brought on for the last four minutes in the second leg for Legia, who believed the defender had completed a three-match ban but UEFA ruled that Legia should have registered him for those games and that he was still ineligible.

Legia, who were then dropped into the Europa League where they lost to Ajax in the round of 32, argued that there had been a huge misunderstanding and that applying the letter of the law was harsh and unsporting.

Legia argued that the UEFA rules and guidelines surrounding the need to include Bereszynski's name on the official list submitted to UEFA were unclear and amounted to "excessive formalism" and that the sanction was disproportionate.

The Warsaw side had also sought financial compensation of about EUR1.85m ($2.07m; £1.35m) for missing the next Champions League round.

But CAS said its three-man panel found "that UEFA's requirement that only listed players can serve pending suspensions did not constitute excessive formalism and that it was compulsory for the club to list the player in order for him to serve his suspension".

Celtic failed to capitalise on their unexpected reprieve, losing 2-1 to NK Maribor in the play-offs.