By Trevor Stynes
LEIPZIG, Germany (Reuters) – Croatia have been fined 105,000 euros ($112,455) by UEFA’s Control, Ethics and Disciplinary Body for incidents at the Euro 2024 match with Italy, the Croatian Football Association said on Friday, while police told Reuters of several arrests around the game.
The atmosphere surrounding the match in Leipzig on Monday was in stark contrast to the previous two Euro games in the city, and at the stadium Croatian fans lit several flares and plastic cups were thrown onto the pitch on numerous occasions.
“The Croatian Football Federation was fined 105,000 euros for throwing objects (45,000 euros), lighting flares (30,000 euros) and inappropriate behaviour (30,000 euros) by some Croatian fans during the Croatia-Italy match,” a statement said.
UEFA have yet to officially announce the sanctions.
Croatia had earlier been fined for the lighting and throwing of flares by fans during their game with Albania, and there is a separate ongoing UEFA investigation into alleged racist or discriminatory behaviour by both sets of fans at that match.
Leipzig police were in action before, during and after the Croatia v Italy game, with arrests made, and known troublemakers among Croatian fans taken into custody until after the match.
“On Monday morning it became known that eight so-called high-risk fans, who had already been refused entry to Germany by the Federal Police the previous day, were reported to be in the area,” a Leipzig police spokesperson told Reuters.
“Police forces were able to take five people into custody immediately. During the course of the day, the five were brought before a judge and preventive custody was confirmed until Tuesday morning.”
The remaining three were also later taken into custody and the eight were released on Tuesday morning and taken to the border.
Police said that around 10,000 Croatians were involved in the fan march and several high-risk supporters were subjected to preventative police checks. At the stadium police had to intervene due to the multiple use of pyrotechnic products.
After the game, around 20 Croatian fans physically attacked Italian supporters, two of whom required hospitalisation. Police took 11 Croatian and Bosnian suspects into custody, and they are being investigated for causing grievous bodily harm.
Leipzig had earlier hosted the Portugal v Czech Republic and France v Netherlands games, and police said that no arrests were made around those matches, and the city will host its final game on Tuesday when Austria meet Turkey in the last 16.
($1 = 0.9334 euros)
(Reporting by Trevor Stynes, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
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