Serbia awarded Albania win, but deducted three points

Serbia have also been ordered to play their next two home games in Group I behind closed doors, while both teams have been fined 100,000 euros (£78,800) following the chaotic scenes at the match in Belgrade, the Serbian FA added.

European football’s governing body UEFA, which imposed the sanctions after a hearing at its headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland, on Thursday, was not immediately available for comment.

The match, played on October 14 with no away fans permitted, was interrupted when a flag depicting so-called Greater Albania, an area covering all parts of the Balkans where ethnic Albanians live, was flown over the terraces and pitch by what appeared to be a remote controlled mini drone near the end of the first half.

Serbian player Stefan Mitrovic eventually grabbed the flag at the Partizan stadium, prompting an angry reaction from Albanian players.

A brawl between rival players broke out after several Albanian players snatched the flag from Mitrovic and then had to run for cover into the tunnel as the invading home fans attacked them while those on the terraces hurled flares.

Riot police moved in when around a dozen fans invaded the pitch and attacked the Albanian players, forcing them to retreat into the tunnel as flares were thrown from the terraces. Serbia captain Branislav Ivanovic told reporters that his players shielded their opponents to the tunnel just before halftime.

The game was held against a backdrop of long-running Serb-Albanian tensions over Kosovo, a majority-Albanian former Serbian province that declared independence in 2008.

NATO waged a 78-day air war in 1999 to halt the killing and expulsion of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo by Serbian forces fighting a two-year counter-insurgency war. Serbia does not recognise Kosovo as independent.

(uk.eurosport.yahoo.com)

Bakudaily.Az