Serbia threaten to quit Euro 2024 over alleged ‘kill the Serb’ chants

Serbia have threatened to pull out of Euro 2024 if alleged offensive chanting from Albania and Croatia fans goes unpunished.

Croatia and Albania supporters have been accused of singing anti-Serbian songs, reportedly including the words “Kill the Serbs” during the entertaining 2-2 draw between the teams in Hamburg.

The Serbian Football Association released a statement in the aftermath, and the general secretary of the organisation, Jovan Surbatovic, said: “What happened is scandalous and we will ask Uefa for sanctions, even at the cost of not continuing the competition.

“We will request Uefa to punish the federations of both selections. We don’t want to participate in that, but if Uefa doesn’t punish them, we will think how will we proceed.

“We were punished for isolated cases and our fans behave much better than the others.”

Uefa announced that the Serbian FA themselves have been fined €14,500 after two rules were broken in their own loss against England. They were penalised €4,500 for the “throwing of objects” by fans and a further €10,000 for “transmitting a provocative message not fit for a sports event”.

Serbia fans displayed a national flag which included the territory of Kosovo, its former republic, within Serbian borders and Kosovan officials duly alerted Uefa to flags, chants and banners which they said contained “political, chauvinistic and racist messages” against their country, leading to the fine.

In reference to the banners, Surbatovic said: “One fan was punished for racist insults and we don’t want it to be attributed to others.

“We Serbs are gentlemen and we have an open heart, so I appeal to the fans to remain gentlemen.”

The build-up to Serbia’s 1-0 defeat to England was also affected by fan clashes in Gelsenkirchen when videos circulated on social media of men throwing chairs at each other.

Meanwhile, Uefa stripped tournament accreditation away from a Kosovan journalist after he directed an Albanian “eagle” sign towards Serbia fans during the England loss