Serbia bans two players for a year for their part in under-21 melee

TWO SERBIAN players involved in a melee at the end of an under-21 European Championship qualifier with England that also sparked a racism row have been banned from international football for a year.

The Serbian FA suspended Nikola Ninkovic and Ognjen Mudrinski from all national teams and banned coaches Srdjan Maksimovic and Andreja Milutinovic from working at any level for two years. It said all four had “violated the ethics and fair play code”.

The brawl in Krusevac followed a last-minute winner for England and Danny Rose being sent off when he kicked the ball away after being subjected to racist abuse throughout the game.

In the immediate aftermath, the Serbian FA went on the attack. It claimed there had been no racist chanting, despite a series of incidents being logged by the FA that reached a crescendo at the end of the match, and accused Rose of acting in an “inappropriate” and “vulgar” manner. Uefa charged both countries over the behaviour of their players and Serbia over racist chanting from the stands.

The scenes provoked a furious response, with many calling on Serbia to be banned altogether from international football and others suggesting Uefa’s response would be a litmus test for its desire to take racism seriously. The FA suggested it could boycott matches in Serbia in protest and the British sports minister, Hugh Robertson, wrote to the Uefa president, Michel Platini, to underline the seriousness of the allegations.

Tomislav Karadzic, the president of the Serbian FA, last week issued a qualified apology for his players’ involvement in the post-match brawl but maintained there had been no racist chanting. “The Serbian people have never been, nor will be, racist,” he said. “The crowd’s reaction to the defeat should not be confused with one of the greatest evils of the modern era.”

After the sanctions were handed down the former Serbia international Savo Milosevic, who is now his country’s director of national teams, condemned the behaviour of the players and officials involved.

“First of all, I do not dare to comment on the sentence. Regardless of that, I would suggest that in the future this or similar behaviour will not be tolerated,” he said. “As such it is not and will never be acceptable to all those in the Serbian FA.”

Uefa’s control and disciplinary panel will meet on November 22nd to decide on sanctions against both sides. After the match, the FA general secretary, Alex Horne, said it would be forced to “question the viability” of sending teams to Serbia in future.

Guardian Service