Scotland stand to gain should Serbia be banned worldwide

Stewart Fisher
Sports Writer

SCOTLAND could be unlikely and unwitting beneficiaries of the fall-out from last night's Serbia Under-21 match against England.

UEFA last night charged both the Football Association and the Serbian FA following the events in Krusevac. The Serbian FA have been charged with alleged racist chanting by fans, and both associations over the behaviour of players at the end of the stormy European Championship play-off which ended amid a mass brawl, a hail of missiles and complaints from England's players about racial abuse.

The cases will be heard on November 22 and should Uefa's control and disciplinary body decide upon a lengthy ban for Serbia, who are repeat offenders in this regard, they have it in their power to ask Fifa to make it a worldwide ban.

That could mean Serbia's results in World Cup qualifying Group A being either annulled or all their group's fixtures awarded as 3-0 default victories to the opposing side. Scotland drew with Serbia at Hampden in September, so such a scenario could either give Craig Levein's side an extra two points in the table, and Wales three, or else lose a solitary point while the likes of Belgium and Macedonia surrender three points.

Although no two cases are identical, a Fifa spokesman last night used the case of the Benfica centre-half Luisao who is banned from all worldwide football until November 14 after striking a referee in a friendly against Fortuna Dusseldorf.

"It is difficult to speak about this match, because it is a Uefa competition, so, officially we have no information on it," said a Fifa spokesman. "There was no Fifa commissioner on site, so if UEFA decide to sanction players or the federation we cannot influence it, it is up to them. What could happen, and again it is hypothetical, is that if a player or a federation commits a very serious incident it could be sanctioned and this could be extended to worldwide level. You might remember recently a Portuguese player attacked the referee and was sanctioned and this was extended to a worldwide level."

A Uefa spokesman said: "Both [sanctions] have happened before; awarding 3-0 results and restructuring the competition so that the loss of one team doesn't cause any problems.

"In terms of World Cup qualifying it would be a Fifa issue and if a total ban came, Uefa would have to request that Fifa extend it worldwide. It would be up to them."

Taken from the Herald