Australia’s Adelaide United have hit out at a “flawed” court ruling which has pitched them into a sudden-death AFC Champions League play-off with rebel Indonesian club Persipura Jayapura.

Club chairman Greg Griffin said the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) should not have provisionally reinstated Persipura, who were kicked out of the Asian club showpiece for joining Indonesia’s breakaway Liga Super.

The ruling means 2008 finalists Adelaide, who had been gifted a spot in the main draw by the exclusion, along with Liaoning Whowin’s withdrawal, host Persipura Thursday with a place in the lucrative Champions League at stake.

“The decision is simply flawed,” Griffin said, according to the Adelaide Advertiser. “The appeal should never have got past first base.

“The Indonesian federation, AFC (Asian Football Confederation) and Adelaide United all have reasonable arguments that there is simply no basis for CAS to make any decision.”

Griffin added the play-off’s result could be scrapped within weeks when CAS makes a final verdict. Under the current scenario, Thursday’s winners will take their place in Group E alongside Uzbek side Bunyodkor and Japan’s Gamba Osaka.

“CAS has made an interim ruling to accommodate a rebel club,” he said. “It is an absolute indictment of CAS this has happened and FIFA has sat back and allowed it to happen.”

Coach John Kosmina admitted his team had been taken by the surprise by the decision, but striker Dario Vidosic said Adelaide were determined to preserve their Champions League berth.

“We feel that it’s our spot that they (Persipura) want to take away from us and there’s no chance we’ll let them come here and take our spot, that’s for sure,” Vidosic said this week.

Liaoning had pulled out of the draw, made in December, in protest at having to go through qualifying after they finished third in the Chinese Super League.

Adelaide, who lost to Gamba Osaka in the 2008 final, placed third in last year’s A-League to earn a place in the Asian play-offs.