15 Oct 14
UEFA reaction awaited after Serbia-Albania Euro 2016 qualifier in Belgrade had to be abandoned amid fights on the pitch.
BIRN
Belgrade, Tirana, Pristina, Skopje, Podgorica
The first football match ever held between Albania and Serbia in decades ended in chaos and violence in the 41st minute, after a small drone with a banner embossed with an Albanian flag flew over the pitch and Serbian fans erupted.
The banner flown by the drone portrayed a map of “Greater Albania” covered with an Albanian flag and the portraits of independent Albania’s two founding fathers, Ismail Qemali and Isa Boletini.
After Serbian player Stefan Mitrovic pulled down the banner a scuffle ensued between the two teams, as Albanian players grabbed the flag from Mitrovic.
The scuffle turned into a worse brawl when a group of Serbian fans invaded the pitch and attacked Albanian players, prompting British referee Martin Atkinson to suspend the match. The score was 0:0 at the time.
Videos and pictures show Serbian fans attacking Albanian players with fists and kicks as the Serbian players try to protect them.
Serbian fans also threw torches and lighters at the Albanian players, as they left the field. One Albanian player was hit by the hooligan who had invaded the pitch.
UEFA confirmed that the match had been abandoned while its disciplinary commission will decide whether to punish the teams.
In a statement on Twitter, Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, who is due to visit Serbia in a few days, said that he was proud of the Albanian team and disappointed by the hosts.
“Proud of the red & black team because they won the pitch through football,” Rama wrote. “A pity for our neighbors who lost face across the world,” he added, referring to the incidents.
The UEFA European Championship 2016 qualifying match was the first match played between Serbia and Albania since 1967.
No Albanian fans were allowed to attend the stadium in Belgrade because of fears of violence.
The decision reflected concern that tensions between supporters could turn violent due to the history of conflict between Serbs and Albanians over Kosovo, the mainly Albanian-inhabited territory that declared independence from Serbia in 2008. More than half of Albania’s football team comes from Kosovo
Tens of thousands of Albania fans had gathered across the region to see the match in maxi-screens set up on squares.
After the game was scrapped, thousands of Albanians fans in Mother Teresa square, in the Albanian capital, Tirana, paraded across town honking horns and branding the flag.
About 3,000 then moved to the airport to greet the Albanian national team as it arrived from Belgrade at 3.30am.
At a press conference in front of officials and thousands of cheering fans, Albanian captain Lorik Cana described the violence on the pitch as “brutal” and the incidents as a sad day for sport.
“When there is a violent act in a sporting environment we can’t be happy although we kept our heads high and only protected ourselves,” Cana said.
Cana noted that apart from Serbian fans, stewards of the Partizan stadium had also attacked them.
After the match was abandoned, Albanians fans turned out also in the streets of the Kosovo capital, Pristina, cheering the Albanian team. Most waved flags and other Albanian symbols and stayed until late. A group burned a placard with the word “Serbia” on it.
Many of the Kosovo fans demanded that UEFA punish the host country for letting the fans run wild on the pitch.
Dozens of Albanians also gathered in southern part of the bridge in the divided city of Mitrovica, in northern Kosovo, while a number of Serbs rallied on the northern side of town.
The Kosovo police said no incidents were recorded between the two sides.
Albanians in Macedonia who followed the match also gathered in the streets to vent their dismay.
Parading cars decorated with Albanian flags, sirens and fireworks could be heard and seen late into the night in the Albanian part of the capital, Skopje, as well as in the western towns of Tetovo and Gostivar.
Ethnic Albanians from Montenegro took also to the streets on Tuesday night in the towns of Plav, Ulcinj and Tuzi, where ethnic Albanian make-up the majority of the population.
A parade of cars with Albanian flags, whistles and boisterous singing kept those towns awake late into the night.
In the Serbian capital the mood was more downbeat. Serbian officials and the public in general blamed the Albanian side for disrupting the match, calling a flag a provocation.
Serbian media also reported that Serbian defender Stefan Mitrovic pulled down the flag in order for the game to continue, accusing Albanian players of causing the brawl by overreacting.
Ivica Dacic, Minister of Foreign Affairs, said the drone stunt was prepared in advance and Serbia took no responsibility for what happened at the stadium.
“The key question is how the EU and UEFA will react,” he said, adding that “if someone from Serbia pulled out a flag of Greater Serbia in Tirana or Pristina it would already be on the UN Security Council schedule”.
Vanja Udovicic, Minister of Youth and Sport, said parading a flag of Greater Albania was an “unacceptable provocation by extremists” and that he expected Albania to condemn it.
“This was the brutal abuse of sport by Albanian extremists,” Udovicic told the Serbian news agency Tanjug.
He denied that any violent incidents occurred on the Serbian side.
“We showed that we are good hosts. Not one bad word came from our side. Even after this provocation, most of our fans remained calm,” Udovicic added.
Serbian players were careful in their statements.
“We just want to play football,” Bane Ivanovic, captain of the Serbian national team, told reporters.
