Post by Golden_Boy™ on Oct 25, 2006 10:13:02 GMT -1
FA charged over Zagreb violence
England could be forced to play games behind closed doors
Paolo Bandini and agencies
Wednesday October 25, 2006
Guardian Unlimited
Croatia fans
The Croatian Football Federation has also been charged for its fans' actions.
As if the fallout from the woeful football played on the pitch wasn't enough, England's defeat to Croatia has now come back to haunt them again: Uefa has charged the Football Association with failing to control its fans during the Euro 2008 qualifier.
Uefa has issued the same charge against the Croatian Football Federation and the matter will be dealt with at the next meeting of Uefa's control and disciplinary committee on November 9. Maximum sanctions could include the possibility of England being forced to play games behind closed doors.
Article continues
England supporters clashed with security guards and police before the match after a group was able to break through the security cordon around the stadium despite not having tickets.
But the FA has expressed unhappiness at how entry to the stadium was managed and today vowed to strongly contest the charge. "We will go to Uefa with a very strong case and the intention to clear ourselves," said FA spokesman Adrian Bevington. "The charge has come as a surprise because we do not believe the charge is justified. In this instance, the Croatian officials took a decision to close the turnstiles on two occasions, which created a serious bottleneck and this has to be taken into account."
The FA has also accused the Croatian authorities of baton-charging England fans indiscriminately and criticised stewarding around the ground. It made its concerns known to a Uefa delegate before and after the match, but Uefa is pressing ahead with the charge against both associations.
"In the case of the English FA the charge is misconduct of the supporters. It is just a charge, levelled by the prosecution," said Uefa director of communications William Gaillard. "This [the FA's mitigation] will be part of the case, and of course the control and disciplinary body has the power to dismiss the case for one or both of the FAs, or to apply sanctions. On the side of the Croatian FA, [the charge] is specifically the mishandling of the entrance process in the stadium in Zagreb and also some crowd misbehaviour."
Gaillard acknowledged that the old reputation of England fans as hooligans and trouble-makers had diminished since the European Championships in 2000. "Since the Charleroi incident, which is a long six years back, the behaviour of English fans has been quite exemplary in Uefa competitions. Certainly you have heard no complaints from us. We know the tremendous efforts that the English FA has put into this part of the game, and I know that this effort is always improving. So this [charge] is kind of a new occurrence, what happened in Zagreb. But we have to figure out exactly what the dynamics of the incident were."
football.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/0,,1930934,00.html
