Montenegrin FA blasts fans
Print Edition
MONTENEGRIN fans who forced Friday’s Euro 2016 qualifier against Russia to be abandoned are hypocrites and barbarians, the Adriatic republic’s football association general secretary said.
The Group G match in Podgorica ended midway through the second half after two outbursts of violence, the first 25 seconds after kickoff when a home fan hit Russia keeper Igor Akinfeev with a flare in the head.
The match resumed after a 33-minute delay but following fighting between rival fans during halftime and a further 18-minute delay for the second half to begin, more trouble erupted.
German referee Deniz Aytekin called the game off in the 67th minute after Russian midfielder Dmitri Kombarov was hit by a missile from the terraces following a scuffle between players on the touchline.
“These fans sing ‘Montenegro we love you’ but throw flares, insult rivals and cause all sorts of incidents every time they turn up and that’s outright hypocrisy,” general secretary Momir Djurdjevac told reporters after the ugly scenes in the stadium.
“We have left the impression of barbarians and this is a complete disaster. It seems we don’t deserve to have a nation, a soccer team or a berth in a major tournament.As far as I am concerned the game should not have continued after the first-minute incident. We can only thank God that no one was seriously hurt.”
Akinfeev was taken to hospital with concussion and neck burns, undergoing a brain scan and other tests.
Montenegrin media also reported a charged atmosphere in Podgorica several hours before kickoff with riot police deployed in numbers to separate rival fans congregating in the city centre.
UEFA said it would wait for reports from the match delegate and the referee before opening disciplinary proceedings and Djurdjevac acknowledged any punishment would be suitable.
Montenegro, which has never qualified for a World Cup or a European Championship as an independent nation, is level with the Russians on five points from four games. Austria leads the group with 13 points from five games, followed by Sweden on nine from the same number of matches.
Russia, meanwhile, has demanded it be awarded a victory for the match.
Russian Football Union president Nikolai Tolstykh said in a statement that his organization would file a protest to UEFA and that “in our view, it should be a technical defeat for Montenegro”.
He added that the match should have been abandoned following the attack on Akinfeev, but that UEFA match delegate Barry Bright overruled Russia’s objections.
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