Piekarek-Smirnov banned by EBL; Fantoni-Nunes ban upheld;

The European Bridge League have announced that German players Josef Piekarek and Alexander Smirnov have been banned from EBL competitions for four years, and for life as a partnership. The pair pleaded guilty to "pre-arranging the method of inappropriate communication and of practicing it, by indicating the strength of their hands by placement of the bidding cards on bidding tray".

It has been reported that the ban by the Italian Bridge Federation imposed on Fulvio Fantoni and Claudio Nunes has been upheld by the Italian Federal Court of Appeals. Fantoni and Nunes had appealed against the three year ban which had been imposed earlier this year.

June 20, 2016