OTHER SPORT

FA COMPLAIN OVER SERBIA MATCH

Serbia players react to Matt Derbyshire's goal last night

Monday June 18,2007

By Julia White for express.co.uk

Comment Speech Bubble Have your say(2)

THE Football Association have sent an official complaint to UEFA following racist abuse directed at England Under-21 players from Serbia fans and players.

Nedum Onuoha was abused by supporters in the first half of England's 2-0 Group B win in Nijmegen and UEFA were forced to make an impromptu anti-racism announcement while play was still going on.

The FA have reported that incident as well as racist abuse in the tunnel, with a statement confirming: "A complaint has also been submitted over the further racist abuse directed at England players by at least one member of the Serbian team in the tunnel after the match."

Serbia players were upset when Matt Derbyshire scored while one of their players was down injured, sparking a mass brawl that carried on in the tunnel after the final whistle.

Arsenal full-back Justin Hoyte is understood to be a player who was abused in the tunnel, and there were also reports of Serbia players spitting.

An FA spokesman said: "We take racism and other forms of discriminatory behaviour extremely seriously and have asked UEFA to investigate these incidents as a matter of urgency.

"We will of course co-operate fully with any investigation."

SERBIAN MATCH

19.06.07, 12:33pm

Perhaps it's time to get the Serbian "Media" to inform their population that anyone intending to come to England to claim the extensive benifits that are available from the benevolent govenment here , they must realise that Englishmen are both black and white,and that to insult one is to to insult the other!

• Posted by: expatriot1000 • Report Comment

RACISM IN FOOTBALL

19.06.07, 12:18am

The FA have asked UEFA to investigate the racism by the Sebian team and fans with a matter of urgency.
Well don't hold yur breath waiting for them to act as it will probably come to a decision sometime in the next decade.
If they wanted to take a stand then they would immediatley ban Serbia from the competition and reinstate Italy in their place, and also ban the Serbian football from competing in any competition for 5 years.
The way their team chased down Derbyshire was criminal, and god help him if he had not ran away, and then for no serbain to get a red card for it was amazing to say the least.
This woould send out the message that racism will not be tolerated under any circumstance, so others would think twice about doing it.

• Posted by: KEEF • Report Comment