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Italy declared 3-0 winners of abandoned Euro qualifier

Other News Materials 29 October 2010 23:51 (UTC +04:00)
Italy were on Friday declared 3-0 winners of a Euro 2012 qualifier against Serbia earlier this month which was abandoned due to rioting Serbian fans, the ruling body UEFA said.
Italy declared 3-0 winners of abandoned Euro qualifier

Italy were on Friday declared 3-0 winners of a Euro 2012 qualifier against Serbia earlier this month which was abandoned due to rioting Serbian fans, the ruling body UEFA said.

"The Control and Disciplinary Body has decided to award the match as a 3-0 forfeit win to Italy," UEFA said in a statement issued after a hearing.

UEFA also ordered Serbia to play one game behind closed doors and that the Serbian federation FSS will get no tickets for the remaining qualifiers away from home, DPA reported.

In the case of further trouble Serbia would have to play another game in front of empty seats and the public would also be banned from one Italian game if there was trouble again at a game in Italy over the next two years, UEFA said.  

The Italian federation FIGC was fined 100,000 euros (139,000 dollars) and the Serbian federation 120,000 euros over the incidents in Genoa on October 12.

Italy was punished because its stadium security did not stop the Serbians from bringing fireworks and into the stadium.

The game was first delayed by 45 minutes and then abandoned after seven minutes by Scottish referee Craig Thomson as Serbian fans hurled fireworks and flares onto the pitch, making play unsafe for players and officials.

Serbian fans also caused trouble before and after the game. They even entered the Serbian team bus, searching for goalkeeper Vladimir Stojkovic who had transferred between rival Belgrade clubs Red Star and Partizan in the offseason.

More than a dozen people were injured and almost 30 Serbian fans, including the alleged ringleader, arrested.

There was speculation ahead of the UEFA ruling that Serbia would face tougher sanctions including a ban from the qualifying campaign.

But they will now only have to play the March 25 match against Northern Ireland behind closed doors if there is no further trouble.

However, Serbian officials reacted with disappointment to the UEFA ruling and did not rule out an appeal which they (and Italy) can lodge three days after officially receiving the UEFA ruling.

"I believe that the decision is not good, especially in terms of registration of the match with official result 3-0 for Italy," FSS president Tomislav Karadzic told the Beta news agency and Serbian state television RTS.

"The rest of the punishment was somewhat expected but we will decide on the appeal once we receive the final decision."

Fans will be allowed in for the October 2011 home game against Italy, but Italian officials said they have no objections.

"We do not mind at all that Serbia and Italy will play in public: as we emphasized in the final report, we want to maintain good relations with the team, managers and real Serbian fans," said FIGC director general Antonello Valentini.

He also said that "UEFA appreciated the work of our delegation, which showed that the Italian federation did its best under the dramatic circumstances of the evening."

The UEFA ruling sees Italy in first place in their qualifying group with 10 points from four games. They are three points ahead of Slovenia while Serbia rank fifth with four points. Only the group winner qualifies directly for the 2012 finals in Poland and Ukraine.

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