Want An Update on Serbia-Albania? Of Course You Do!

If you go back one post from this one, you will see a post I made about the Serbia- Albania game that was abandoned after a drone landed on the field with an Albanian flag.

I'd like to ask you as readers to take a minute and just look at that post.

Now, see how I said: "...in the realm of less important things, Serbia simply cannot be awarded a win here. Call it a draw, get apologies for both sides, fine Serbia, and move on."

That is what I thought, in my own humble, unbiased, 100% American opinion, should have been the long term result of this Albania- Serbia game. The Serbian fans went berserk, and caused an unsafe environment for every human being in the stadium.

When the Albanian players left the field for the locker room, they went from being verbally abused, to having things hurled at them, to having to avoid a fight going on in the hallways between more Serbians and security.

Given how the Serbian stadium turned into a giant brawl within 120 seconds of play, I think it would be justified to call it a draw, give Serbia a fine, and basically admit that this match should not have happened.

Well, UEFA, continuing on their streak of making decisions newsworthy, decided that was not the right course.

Yeah, was not.

Do you want to guess what they decided would be done here?

Whatever you guessed, it was probably not correct, given the collection of actions they took makes about no sense and makes nothing right.

Here is the exact wording from UEFA's official website:

"The UEFA Control, Ethics and Disciplinary Body (CEDB) met yesterday and announced the following decision after various incidents that occurred during the European Qualifiers Group I match between Serbia and Albania, which was played in Belgrade on 14 October.

The CEDB has decided to declare the above-mentioned match as forfeited. As a consequence, the Football Association of Albania (FShF) is deemed to have lost the game 3-0. In addition, the FShF has been fined €100,000.

The CEDB has also decided to deduct the Football Association of Serbia (FSS) three points for the current UEFA European Championship qualifying competition. In addition, the FSS has been ordered to play its next two UEFA competition matches as host team behind closed doors. Finally, the association has been fined €100,000.

These decisions are open to appeal."

Pause.

In non-official terms, UEFA just decided to fine BOTH TEAMS €100,000.

They also, in the "what in God's name are you doing" decision of the month, decided that Albania, since their players walked off the pitch when chaos was ensuing throughout the stadium, forfeited the game.

Since Albania walked off, they have, according to all official records from now on, given up and lost this game. This awards Serbia a 3-0 victory.

Keep in mind that this is not a friendly game. This is qualifying for the UEFA Euro 2016 tournament. It matters.

So then UEFA decided to make things even more strange: they gave Serbia the win, then deducted the points. So Serbia got a mark in the W column, but no points to make a difference. Lastly, UEFA pulled out the last thing they could, saying Serbia must play their next two home games behind closed doors, so with a completely empty stadium.

"But Patrick, if it makes no difference without the points, then why would they award a decision like that at all? Why didn't they just say the game didn't happen or something?"

Good question, reader!

Put simply, it's because UEFA, in my opinion, doesn't know what to do anymore. That, or they aren't caring about the right thing.

They aren't seeing that this is more than soccer. They did not admit a mistake. This is a problem that extends far beyond this game, it's a problem with the system.

Expanding on the decision itself, and the backlash (you knew it was coming) to the decision, the Albanians took about a day to say the decision was a "travesty" and will appeal the decision faster than you can say "remote control drone."

They will also have a case, since as I said before, and as is explained well here, not only did the stadium erupt in fighting, but when the crowd chants something like "kill the Albanians," I think it's safe to get off the field and live to see another day. Literally.

Add that onto the fact that attackers towards the Albanians included fans, stewards, and POLICE, Albania is doing the right thing by saying it was a miracle no one got hurt seriously.

Possibly the best part of this is that Serbia blames Albania for everything, saying this whole thing was an Albanian terrorist plot that the officials and team were in on.

I also want to point out how UEFA has a shortlist of matches that will not be played due to ongoing disputes and conflict between countries.

Gibraltar and Spain have a dispute about sovereignty, so that game isn't going to happen.

Armenia and Azerbaijan have a territorial dispute, so that game won't happen either.

"But Patrick, this whole Serbia-Albania-Kosovo thing sounds kind of like a territorial dispute that's still going on..."

EXACTLY.

UEFA has no consistency. They award the home team who, if they had the chance, would have killed the other team, a win; they take away the points for a win from that team; they fine everyone involved; they count the people who ran off the field in fear of their lives as people forfeiting; but the home team also gets a stadium ban.

Oh, and Albania and Serbia still get to play each other one more time.

It is in just under a year (October 8, 2015), but hopefully by then UEFA can get its act together: there is no reason that game should occur.

At all.

Do not play this game.

UEFA has to recognize this is more than soccer. And they have in other situations. But this is a situation where people can die. There's too much going on for this game to happen.

Do NOT. Play this game.

As always, feedback and responses are appreciated!!

CITED:

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/oct/24/serbia-albania-euro-2016-uefa-sanctions
http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/wireStory/uefa-serbia-win-albania-points-26419620
http://www.uefa.com/uefaeuro/qualifiers/news/newsid=2172207.html
http://www.uefa.com/uefaeuro/season=2016/teams/team=147/matches/index.html

It Gets Dicey Out There

This past weekend, club teams have been on break in favor of international friendly matches. At least, they were friendly in parts of the world. In Europe, international squads have already started playing games that matter: qualifying group games for the Euro 2016 (Think World Cup, but just European teams).

One of the matches that was played over the weekend involved two teams that people probably don't pay attention to unless you live there. This match was Serbia against Albania in Serbia. Now you see what I mean? It's not a heavyweight matchup or anything, but these are two countries mean a lot to each other.

Evidently, they hate each other.

Serbia and Albania have had international conflict since the Yogoslavian wars and one of the key disagreements was when Albania decided to recognize Kosovo as an independent nation, while Serbia criticized Albania for instigating conflict and not recognizing national borders.

Albania also lead an uprising against the Serbs behind Isa Boljetini in 1912 which led them to become an independent nation. 

So there has been a decent amount of unrest between these two, and Albania's team had not visited the Serbia stadium for a game in decades.

Like, since 1967.

So nothing could go wrong in a qualifier soccer game right?

...Right?

Well, nothing exactly went wrong for the first 40 minutes of the game. Sure, there was extra security and a lot of flares going off, so it wasn't a safe situation, but nothing drastic happened.

Then, in the 41st minute, a flare was thrown on the field, so the game was stopped to clear it.

Then, a mini- drone appeared flying over the stadium, hanging an Albanian flag beneath it.

It approached the ground, and as the flag came down, a Serbian player grabbed it.

...And proceeded to be attacked by multiple Albanian players, starting an inter-team brawl in the middle of the field.

It gets worse.

The refs decided the game should be paused, and stopped the clock, just in time for supporters in the stands to get in fights with a) each other and b) the security at the game.

Multiple supporters of either side stormed the field and fought there.

Then the refs decided that, to the surprise of no one, the game was...

Wait for it...

...Not safe to continue.

...So they cancelled the rest of the game.

As Albanian players ran off the field they were pelted by anything the Serbian supporters could find.

Then the Serbian players were harassed by any Albanian supporters that weren't actively in a brawl.

Serbia is making the case to UEFA that they should be awarded a 3-0 win by forfeit, while UEFA is determining whether the game should be played again.

Now, I'm not sure if it's just me, but this is not a game that needs to be played. No one wants to see each other after this. It's not safe to try this again, especially if for some reason they allow it to be played in Belgrade again.

However, in the realm of less important things, Serbia simply cannot be awarded a win here. Call it a draw, get apologies for both sides, fine Serbia, and move on.

This is just another example that, believe it or not, politics, unrest, and racism/ radicalism make their way into soccer more than any other sport.

And it shows.

The game was tense before anything happened. This really isn't a game that should even be scheduled. The higher powers need to recognize here that if there is tension between nations, it shouldn't be played.

I'm not talking Germany and Poland, that game was played without a problem.

I'm thinking if somehow Russia and Ukraine were scheduled to play. That would be asking for trouble. And UEFA needs to realize that there is more here than just soccer: they try to say they know that, but they don't show they recognize it.

It gets dicey out there.

You Only Hear About The Worst

Has anyone heard of the club CSKA Moscow? Unless you're either Russian or a soccer fan, you probably haven't, and that's really no big deal. I want you to take 60 seconds and Google News "CSKA" real quick.

If you see the same results I'm seeing, the entire page is filled with news about a stadium ban, fans, and a Champions League game. Here's what happened:

CSKA Moscow, as you probably picked up on, is a Russian team based in Moscow. They are one of the best Russian teams, and make it into the Champions League every year. They were put into a group (of death) with Manchester City from England, Bayern Munich from Germany, and Roma, from Italy. They played their second group stage game (each team plays each other twice) in Russia against Bayern last Tuesday, the 30th.

They played in an empty stadium.

CSKA played their first game in Rome, and lost 5-1. The result was big, but it was unfortunately marred by the actions of the CSKA fans.

The away CSKA fans.

Roma is not a club whose fans are known to be peaceful, as there have been multiple incidents of violence in Rome. However, this incident is the CSKA fans'.

Last year, Manchester City played in Russia, against the same team, and their star midfielder Yaya Toure was racially abused the entire game with monkey chants. UEFA hit CSKA with a fine and a stadium ban that is taking affect this year on a home game.

It started when Roma scored, and CSKA fans threw 10 flares at once over at the Roma fans. The fans were separated by a perspex barrier and stadium guards on each side. When the Roma fans threw the flares back, the CSKA fans charged the stewards and started a fight. Then riot police were called in, and the fans picked fights with them too.

They also showed "far-right" banners in their section of the stadium, another word for neo-facist and racist.

I found a link that gives a good depiction of what happened that day at the stadium - http://tinyurl.com/kxoqd7w - which shows mobs of these away fans fighting anyone they see, such as police, stewards, and opposing fans.

The combination of the ridiculous behavior by their fans in this game and the ridiculous behavior of their fans last year resulted in UEFA essentially saying "we've had enough of you," and banning CSKA from selling tickets to fans to the rest of their away games, along with a $268,000 fine, and, the kicker (no pun intended), the rest of their home games will be in empty stadiums.

This is the most extreme use of power by UEFA as of yet, but it is the only thing to do. The shameful thing is that it took riots inside an away stadium against police for UEFA to actually do this. This is something UEFA needs to do more often, because news of racist chants and hooliganism getting out of hand is getting closer and closer together, and more and more severe.

Soccer as a sport needs to get this together, and as hard as it may be, get this under control. It isn't good for anyone for a team to play in an empty stadium, but what choice do you have when the team's fans are so awful?

It's a disappointment to the sport that they need to resort to this, but they need to use this power more often so that this problem dissipates.