Paris: UEFA hit Croatia and Turkey with disciplinary procedures Saturday following flare-throwing incidents at Euro 2016 matches as the Croatian press raged at its “shameful” fans.
Croatian fans hurled flares on to the pitch in the 86th minute of the 2-2 draw with Czech Republic in Saint Etienne on Friday, while Turkish fans let off flares after their 3-0 defeat by Spain in Nice.
UEFA said Croatia was accused of crowd disturbances, racist behaviour, setting off fireworks and throwing objects. And it accused Turkey of a pitch invasion, throwing objects and setting off fireworks.
Croatian coach Ante Cacic called the country’s fans “sports terrorists” after the incidents which caused a four-minute halt to the match. A steward narrowly avoided injury when one of the flares exploded as he was clearing it from the pitch.
Croatian fans also fought among themselves in the chaos. Even the country’s president Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic described the violent fans as “enemies of Croatia”.
Less than a week after Russian fans tried to attack their English rivals inside the Marseille stadium, the flare incidents heaped new problems on the European Championship finals.
“Ashamed Croatia!” read the front-page headline of the country’s top-selling Vecernji list newspaper. Croatia had been leading 2-1 when the flares were thrown, but after the stoppage the Czechs scored with a penalty to force a draw.
Croatia’s football federation (HNS) said it had warned UEFA and French police in advance that hooligans were planning to disrupt the match.
“In the preparation of this match, HNS did everything possible to prevent incidents and therefore both UEFA and the French police were warned of hooligans’ intentions to interrupt it,” a federation statement said.
The HNS official in charge of security, Miroslav Markovic, said the federation had a “tip-off” there would be incidents in the 85th minute of the match, the HINA news agency reported.
Markovic also slammed Croatian authorities for failing for years to tackle the hooligan problem in the country. “Inefficacy and lack of will to at least start resolving the problem incited the hooligans to continue with such acts,” he said.
