Serbia threatens to exit Euro 2024 over chants during Croatia-Albania match
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Croatia fans celebrate their team's second goal in the match against Albania, an own goal scored by Albania's Klaus Gjasula.
PHOTO: REUTERS
BELGRADE - The head of the Serbian football association threatened to pull the team pit of the European Championships over chants made during the draw between Albania and Croatia.
Jovan Surbatovic – the general secretary of the Football Association of Serbia (FSS) – told Serbian broadcaster RTS late on June 19 – the country demanded action from authorities over remarks made during the match, including the chant: “Kill, kill, kill the Serb”.
Surbatovic told RTS that the FSS would seek sanctions from Uefa “even at the cost of not continuing the competition.”
Serbia has had tense relations with both Albania and Croatia in past decades.
In the 1990s, a string of wars broke out across the former Yugoslavia that saw bloody fighting in Bosnia, Croatia and Slovenia.
Many blamed late Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic for instigating the conflicts.
Serbia also fought a war against ethnic Albanian insurgents in the breakaway province of Kosovo in the late 1990s, which triggered a Nato intervention in the conflict.
Serbia are competing in their first European Championship since the dissolution of Yugoslavia.
The squad lost 1-0 to England in their opening match, with their coach Dragan Stojkovic saying the team showed “too much respect” to their rivals. AFP