Friday, June 17, 2016

UEFA targets Croatia as another distebilizing factor after fireworks and crowd trouble vs. Czech Republic


Croatia will face action from UEFA after their Euro 2016 Group D game against Czech Republic in St Etienne was halted after their fans threw fireworks and at least 10 flares onto the pitch.
Croatia were leading 2-1 with five minutes to go when flares were thrown onto the field. Their players appealed to fans for calm but a firecracker then went off very close to a steward who was clearing the area, causing him to jump out of the way.
There were then disturbing scenes in the stand where the fireworks appeared to come from, with the Croatia fans seemingly fighting among themselves.
The game was stopped for around five minutes as referee Mark Clattenburg took the players to the centre of the pitch.
A UEFA statement confirmed that "disciplinary proceedings will be opened tomorrow once UEFA has received the official reports of the match delegate and referee."
"These are not supporters, they are hooligans," Croatia coach Ante Cacic said after the game.
UEFA has already opened a disciplinary case against the Croatian Football Association after a fan ran on the pitch following Luka Modric's goal in the 1-0 win against Turkey, with the case to be judged by their disciplinary on July 21.
During qualifying for Euro 2016, Croatia were ordered to close a section of their ground for a game as punishment for fans' racist behavior and crowd trouble -- including setting off fireworks and throwing missiles -- in a game in Italy.
Croatia were then docked a point in their qualifying campaign due to the racist behaviour of their fans in the return match against Italy, when a swastika was mown into the pitch.
"Maybe it's best that we don't play at all than that these things keep happening," midfielder Ivan Perisic said after the game.
When the game finally did restart, the Czechs forced a 2-2 draw with a 93rd-minute penalty to snatch a point from a game they had barely been in. They hadn't even created a goal-scoring chance until Milan Skoda's 76th-minute header halved the deficit. Perisic and Ivan Rakitic had netted for Croatia.
Rakitic told ZDF: "I am not sure whether it was a penalty. But if we can't behave on the stands, we might not have deserved it on the pitch."
If Croatia had won they would have been guaranteed a place in the round of 16.

Earlier this week, Russia were fined €150,000 and handed a suspended disqualification from Euro 2016 over crowd disturbances at their game against England.

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