Disgraceful UEFA sanctions!

Let’s be very clear right away. The idea of a drone flying over Belgrade’s stadium with a banner at the glory of Greater Albania during a Serbia-Albania football game is a violent, harmful and useless provocation. I can’t believe a single second no one could see it coming. Those who did it knew what could potentially happen. They started it.

I can’t believe a moment this was done with the willingness of making of this football game the historic occasion of bridging the wide gap (read cliff or canyon) between Serbs and Albanians; it’s a real pity. Sport has this ability to bring people together if it is used that way. It can also tear people apart and that was apparently how some wanted it to be. 

Be that as it may, UEFA sanctions are a disgrace. 

At the end of the day, Serbia won the game (what a message!) but won’t get the 3 points. Albania lost by forfeit. On this point, both stand on an equal footing, they won’t get any point from this terrible show; after all, it is the strict minimum. Additionally, both Federations are deemed to pay a €100,000 fine. For what exactly we don’t know - but hey, again, both were treated equally; why not… both have responsibilities for what happened. 

Now is where it gets absolutely shameful. Serbia will have to play its next two official UEFA games behind closed doors. That’s the only difference between sanctions against both federations. For the record, Monaco got to play one game behind closed doors last season because fans invaded the pitch to celebrate their accession to the first league, two years ago. Standard de Liège in Belgium got one because security couldn’t be guaranteed around the pitch. I’m not talking of actual violence on the pitch, but risks of. That’s worth one game behind closed doors. Let us agree that what happened in Serbia probably seems very comparable to the UEFA… provided the sanction is not so different!

Let me remind you. We’re talking about people (let’s not call them fans) actually punching players in the face, hitting them with chairs, throwing bottles at them. And that’s putting the Serbian chants asking for all Albanians to be murdered, aside. What an organization. So compared to Monaco and/or Standard, all that would only be worth a single miserable additional game behind closed doors – are they serious? 

What one has witnessed in Belgrade is of an extraordinary violence. It’s not even sports. Those are scenes of chaos, and should be sanctioned as such. Let me be clear. I think the Serbian Federation is a victim of their so called ‘fans’… but someone has to pay for it. Exactly like the Albanian federation may have to bear responsibility for the flag (if we don’t consider the host responsible for safety above and around its own stadium), although it’s also a victim… but someone has to pay for it; again. 

The Serbian federation being, at the end of the day, equally sanctioned is a joke. The behavior of some stupid Serbs is under no circumstances comparable to the flying flag provocation – no matter how violent/stupid/harmful the idea is. I simply cannot accept nor understand such a judgment.  

By fear of God knows what, UEFA wanted to equally sanction events that can’t be compared. That is, put simply, unfair; or the art of sanctioning without deciding. Let’s be honest, such a bad decision can lead to unforeseeable reactions, which might go way beyond football. The message sent by the UEFA today is absolutely disastrous; not only for football or sport ethics, but for the entire region and its political stability. Nothing more, nothing less. 

The UEFA is responsible. They agreed that Spain and Gibraltar can never fall in the same group; neither can Azerbaijan and Armenia – for political reasons. Why on Earth did they authorize that game in the first place? Deal with it, UEFA!