Serbia lost to England in their Euro 2024 opener on Sunday (AFP via Getty)
Serbia are threatening to withdraw from Euro 2024 if UEFA do not punish Croatia and Albania for chants against them.
Jovan Surbatovic, the General Secretary of Serbian Football Association (FSS), has ordered UEFA to take action against the two nations after chants of, ‘Kill, kill, kill the Serb’, were heard during their Group B match on Wednesday.
A group of Albania fans also held up a banner which read, ‘AFSF – do not cooperate with a genocidal state’, and is a message directed towards the Albanian Football Federation over their plans to host the Under-21 European Championship in 2027 alongside Serbia.
Albania share an intense rivalry with Serbia due to their political history and a Euro 2016 qualifier between the two teams 10 years ago was abandoned after fighting broke out between players, supporters and officials on the pitch.
Serbia currently sit bottom of Group C following their 1-0 defeat to England on Sunday and are due to play Slovenia in their second match at 2pm on Thursday.
But their participation in the competition is now in doubt with Surbatovic calling for UEFA to sanction Croatia and Albania for the ‘scandalous’ chants from their supporters.
Chants of ‘kill, kill, kill the Serb’ were heard during Albania’s Euro 2024 match against Croatia (MB Media/Getty)
Albania supporters referred to Serbia as a ‘genocidal state’ on a banner during their game against Croatia (MB Media/Getty)
‘First of all, I want to thank our fans for their support in the match against England and I hope we will beat Slovenia.’ said Surbatovic.
‘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. 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.’
Meanwhile, Serbia’s FA were fined €14,500 (£12,200) after their supporters threw objects onto the pitch during the defeat to England on Sunday.
‘We were punished for isolated cases and our fans behaved much better than the others,’ Surbatovic said.
‘One fan was punished for racist insults and we don’t want it to be attributed to others. We Serbs are gentlemen and we have an open heart, so I appeal to the fans to remain gentlemen.’
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