Outrage and relief in Serbia after UEFA verdict

By Boris Babic Oct 30, 2010, 9:30 GMT

Belgrade - The Serbian football organization FSS may have said it was unhappy with fines for the riot-interrupted Euro qualifier in Italy, but newspaper comments Saturday can be summed into a sigh of relief: 'It could have been worse.'

Exactly that was what the daily Pres said, stressing that most of the sanctions were softer than what the European football body UEFA could have imposed for the match abandoned on October 12.

Officials abandoned the match in Genoa shortly after it began because of rioting Serbian hooligans.

UEFA on Friday registered the match as a 3-0 for Italy, ordered Serbia to play one game behind closed doors and will not allocate tickets to FSS for the remaining away qualifiers.

Before UEFA announced its verdict, FSS president Tomislav Karadzic blamed Italy for the incidents and said he was expecting a rematch, but media had speculated that Serbia might even be banned from international competition for several years.

A former Serbian football official, Dusan Maravic, wrote an opinion for the daily Blic, spitting fire at UEFA for 'very harsh' fines against Serbia and 'cosmetic' sanctions against Italy.

But according to Blic's own commentator, 'UEFA gave Serbia a last chance' by leaving it in the running for Euro 2012. The Balkan nation had already been fined and warned because of incidents caused by its hooligan supporters ahead of this year's World Cup in South Africa.

The daily Politika believed that a part of the 'football nation' will agree with the officials. It lamented 'draconian fines,' but pointed out 'how common sense tells us: we got off well.'

'Had UEFA really applied what (its president Michel) Platini calls 'zero tolerance,' we could have already said an international farewell to this generation of players,' it said.

At the same time, by letting Serbia off the hook, UEFA maybe did not exactly do it a favour, Politika said.

'Had it forced us into isolation, we would have had plenty of time to clean the house, like England did,' it said, referring to England's five-year ban from international football following the 1995 Heysel Stadium disaster in Belgium with the loss of 39 lives.

'Only then, after punishing our own for our own mistake, could we return to Europe with a clean face and point at others for their faults,' the newspaper said.

Serbia's next Euro qualifier is at home against Ireland in March. The team is now second-to last in its Euro qualifying group, behind Italy, Slovenia, Estonia and Northern Ireland with four points from four matches

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