Serbia Football Association Blames Italy Organisers for Riots

15 Oct 2010 / 06:40

The Football Association of Serbia, FSS, has blamed the Italian organisers in Genoa for failing to prevent the hooligan violence that erupted at the Serbia-Italy EURO 2012 qualifier on October 12.
Bojana Barlovac
"The FSS Executive Board is unanimous in the assessment that it was up to the Italian Football Association to organise the match properly," FSS President Tomislav Karadzic told reporters on Friday.
He said that FSS had information that some fan groups from Serbia were going to cause trouble and had notified the Italian Football Association and police about possible unruly behavior.
At the Tuesday match in Genoa, Serbian soccer hooligans cut through fencing and threw flares onto the pitch, forcing the referee to cancel the game just minutes after it had started. The violence continued after the fans left the stadium and 138 people were arrested.
The disciplinary panel of Europe's governing football body, UEFA, is currently discussing the events in Genoa. The panel has a range of sanctions available to it, from fines through to exclusion from European competition. Its decision is not expected until October 28.
Karadzic is not optimistic about the panel's verdict but said: “We will try to present our case and make it clear that the FSS did everything in its power to prevent the incidents”.
One of the men arrested in the riots, Ivan Bogdanov, the leader of the Serbia's Red Star football fan club, spoke at a court hearing in Italy on Friday.
He said that the riots in the stadium were directed against the FSS, which, according to him, does not allow Red Star players to play on the national team.
The Serbian Justice Ministry expects the Serbian nationals who were arrested during the riots to be extradited to Serbia before long.
Serbia will also ask UEFA to reschedule their EURO 2012 qualifier against Italy.
"We will meet with UEFA president Michel Platini and the soccer governing body's other top officials on October 18 and ask for a replay," Karadzic said.

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