The match between Croatia and Albania at Euro 2024 ended at 2-2 but ‘Kill the Serbs’ chants at the stands grabbed all the headlines.
New Delhi: The Serbian football team have threatened to pull out of the ongoing Euro 2024 if the UEFA (European football’s governing body) do not take any strict necessary action following the offensive chants during the Croatia vs Albania game on Wednesday. During the entertaining 2-2 draw between Croatia and Albania, a set of fans were heard chanting ‘Kill the Serbs’, which have irked the Serbian Football Association. To add more to that, Serbia were also offended when a Kosovan TV reporter aimed an Albanian ‘eagle’ sign towards the Serbian fans in one of the games.
Meanwhile, the TV journalist has been banned for the rest of the tournament. “What happened is scandalous and we will ask UEFA for sanctions, even at the cost of not continuing the competition,” Serbian FA General Secretary Jovan Surbatovic said. “We are sure that they will be punished because they have already responded to our appeal to remove the so-called journalist from Albania from the championship.
“We will request UEFA to punish the federations of both selections. We don’t want to participate in that, but if UEFA doesn’t punish them, we will think about how to proceed. We were punished for the cases of fishing and our fans behaved much better than the others. One fan was fined for racist abuse and we don’t want it to be attributed to others. We Serbs are gentlemen and we have an open heart, so I appeal to the fans to remain gentlemen,” he added.