Fans of several Balkan teams have displayed banners featuring maps and slogans their opponents consider outrageous and politically charged.
Serbian football officials threatened to quit the European Championship over fan chants reportedly heard during Wednesday’s Albania-Croatia match in Hamburg.
The game on Wednesday ended 2-2.
Serbia started its second group match against Slovenia on Thursday afternoon in Munich.
“What happened is scandalous, and we will ask UEFA for sanctions, even at the cost of not continuing the competition,” Serbia Football Association general secretary Jovan Šurbatović said.
“We will request UEFA to punish the federations of both teams. We don’t want to participate in that, but if UEFA doesn’t punish them, we will think about how to proceed.”
UEFA has yet to respond. However, The Times has since quoted an anonymous official saying that no formal complaint or threat to quit had been received — and dismissing the story as “a case of someone speaking to satisfy local populism”.
Tit for tat
The animosity between Croatian and Albanian fans toward the Serbs, and vice versa, dates to the 1990s wars in the Balkans.
Serbian fans are notorious for their chants against the Croats and Albanians, as well as racist shouts and vocal support of convicted war criminals responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands during the bloody breakup of the former Yugoslavia.
UEFA fined the Albanian and Serbian federations €10,000 each after their first group matches for fans displaying banners featuring nationalist maps, or for “transmitting provocative messages not fit for a sports event”.
Each federation is responsible for the conduct of its fans. Serbia’s UEFA fine grew to €14,500 for “throwing of objects”, while Albania has to pay a total of €37,375 for pitch invasion and “lighting of fireworks”.
A group of Albanian fans arrived with a banner and a map showing their country extending its borders into the territory of neighbouring countries. The offending map was displayed in Dortmund on Saturday during the team’s 2-1 loss to Italy.
Meanwhile, a Serbia fans’ banner seen at the 1-0 loss against England in Gelsenkirchen included the territory of Kosovo, a former Serbian province that declared independence in 2008, and the slogan “No Surrender”.
UEFA has also launched an investigation into claims of racist monkey chants by some Serbian fans aimed at England players during the clash.