Jack Kenmare
Serbia have threatened to pull out of Euro 2024 after submitting a request to UEFA.
Dragan Stojkovic's side, who are taking part in their first European Championship tournament as an independent nation, lost their Group C opener against England.
They are scheduled to face Slovenia at the Allianz Arena in Munich on Thursday afternoon but their future at this summer's competition has been cast into doubt.
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Serbia are claiming that fellow Balkan nations Croatia and Albania fans chanted "kill, kill, kill the Serb" during Wednesday's 2-2 draw at the Volksparkstadion in Hamburg.
Jovan Surbatovic, the General Secretary of the Football Association of Serbia, has submitted a request for UEFA to punish both Croatia and Albania for the alleged chants in the 59th minute.
In fact, he has warned that Serbia are ready to walk away from the competition if no action is taken.
"First of all, I want to thank our fans for their support in the match against England and I hope we will beat Slovenia," he told via RTS.
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"What happened is scandalous and we will ask UEFA for sanctions, even if it means not continuing the competition.
"We are sure that they will be punished, because they have already responded to our appeal to remove the so-called journalist from Albania from the championship."
Surbatovic added: "We will demand from UEFA to punish the federations of both selections. We do not want to participate in that, but if UEFA does not punish them, we will think how will we proceed.
"We were punished for isolated cases and our fans behaved much better than the others. One fan was punished for racist insults and we don't want it to be attributed to others.
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"We Serbs are gentlemen and we have an open heart, so I appeal to the fans to remain gentlemen."
So what happens if Serbia walk away from Euro 2024? They are scheduled to face Slovenia on Thursday but if they do pull out, their final group stage game against Denmark would, of course, fall through.
According to UEFA laws, Denmark would be given an automatic 3-0 win, with Serbia being handed a large fine.
As mentioned earlier, a journalist has received an immediate ban from all Euro 2024 matches after making an incendiary political gesture during England’s encounter with Serbia.
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It emerged on Monday that UEFA banned Kosovar journalist Arlind Sadiku from reporting on Euro 2024 games after he directed an Albanian ‘eagle’ hand gesture towards Serbian fans during a live broadcast before their match with England.
As per the Guardian, Sadiku, who reports for the television channel Artmotion, was refused entry to Albania’s press conference on Tuesday and has since had his accreditation confiscated.
Artmotion was allegedly told by UEFA that Sadiku’s pass had been cancelled with immediate effect due to “misconduct" at the match between Serbia and England.
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Sadiku had been reporting in a position in front of thousands of Serbia fans, with many chanting the phrase “Kosovo je srce Srbije”, which translates to “Kosovo is the heart of Serbia”.
Towards the end of his television segment, he looked towards that crowd and made the ‘eagle’ gesture with his hands.
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