FIFA's disciplinary committee working overtime after Switzerland-Serbia match
- by Paul Kennedy @pkedit, Jun 24, 2018
It opened investigations against ...
-- Swiss goal-scorers Granit Xhaka and Xherdan Shaqiri for their goal celebrations;
-- The Serbian federation for crowd disturbances and the display of political and offensive messages by fans; and
-- Serbia coach Mladen Krstajic for alleged statements made in the aftermath of the loss.
The Serbia federation complained about the "double eagle" celebrations by Xhaka and Shaqiri -- nods to the double-headed eagle on Albania's national flag -- as a "provocative" act of nationalism.
The families of the Swiss goalscorers hail are from Kosovo, where a Serbian crackdown on ethnic Albanians triggered the Kosovo War in 1998-99.
One pro-government Serbian newspaper complained "the Albanian clan within the "clock-makers" team was sending poisoned arrows weeks before, so the match couldn't pass without a provocation." (Four Swiss starters have Albanian parents.)
VAR claim. At the same time, the Serbian soccer federation complained about the work of German referee Felix Brych and his VAR crew after no penalty was awarded when defenders Stephan Lichtsteiner and Fabian Schar wrestled Serbian giant Aleksandar Mitrovic to the ground in the second half.
Krstajic told reporters it was not up to him to "comment on or to berate the referee. It is up to you to assess that."
