Albania awarded Serbia win by sports court in drone case
Jul 10, 2015, 10:49 AM
Albania was awarded a victory over Serbia by the top sports court on Friday in a reversal of a UEFA sanction over a soccer game that was abandoned when a drone with a political banner flew into the stadium and sparked violence.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport decided that Albania had not refused to play on in a hostile atmosphere in the Serbian capital, Belgrade, in October as European football’s governing body had initially ruled.
CAS ruled that Serbia was responsible for the European Championship qualifier not being completed and had to forfeit the match. Serbia had been awarded a default 3-0 victory by UEFA but then deducted three points and ordered to play its next two qualifiers in an empty stadium.
Serbia has still been deducted three points but now Albania has been awarded the 3-0 win in the Euro 2016 qualifying group.
Based on the CAS ruling, Albania is now level on 10 points with second-place Denmark in Group I, which is led by Portugal. Serbia is now last on minus two points.
CAS did, however, confirm UEFA’s ruling that Albania was responsible for the drone carrying an Albanian nationalist banner hovering above the field in the Serbian capital. UEFA’s decision to fine both federations 100,000 euros ($112,000) was also upheld by CAS as Serbia’s appeal was completely dismissed.
Tensions between the countries were fueled by Kosovo — an ethnic Albanian-dominated province — declaring independence from Serbia in 2008.
Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic called the CAS ruling a “global injustice.”
“Those who caused the incident have been awarded, while the victim has been punished,” Vucic said. “The ruling by the court in Lausanne is a shame for law and justice and an insult to all normal people.”
The Balkan countries are scheduled for a return match in Albania on Oct. 8.
Addressing Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama on Twitter, Vucic said: “We’ll win the match, without drones and anybody’s help in the stadium.”
Rama responded by inviting Vucic to the game, tweeting: “We can applaud together the winners.”
The Oct. 14 match was stopped in the 41st minute when the drone appeared in Belgrade, prompting clashes among players. Serbian fans also attacked Albania team members and threw flares onto the field.
CAS said it was unable to confirm that the referee issued a “clear, direct and unconditional order to the players to resume the match” with their safety assured. CAS blamed the abandonment on Serbian “security lapses” and “acts of violence exerted on the Albanian players by the Serbian fans and at least one security steward.”
The ruling makes the pursuit of the two automatic qualification places for the Euro 2016 finals in France tighter, with Denmark ahead of Albania only on goal difference but with a game in hand.
Denmark coach Morten Olsen said qualifying is now “more difficult” after calling the ruling “completely incomprehensible.”
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Llazar Semini in Tirana, Albania, Jovana Gec in Belgrade, Serbia and Jan M. Olsen in Copenhagen, Denmark contributed to this report.
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