Denmark’s footy chiefs have been slapped with a hefty €10,000 (£8,400) fine after cheeky fans displayed a bold banner during their Euro 2024 clash against England last week.
The Danes managed to snag a 1-1 draw against the Three Lions in Frankfurt, leaving them neck and neck in Group C based on goal difference. But now they’ve got more than just Tuesday’s crunch match against Serbia to worry about, as UEFA has dished out a penalty for the “F*** UEFA” message that was brandished by supporters.
It’s not just Denmark feeling the heat either; they’re the third squad at the Euros to cop a fine over controversial fan banners, following in the footsteps of Serbia and Albania. However, Danish FA bigwig Erik Brgger Rasmussen isn’t taking it lying down he’s on a mission to track down the culprits and send the bill their way, as he told TV 2 Sport.
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He said: “We pay the fine, but the most important thing for us, and we are starting to do that now, is that we identify those who have brought in the banner, and then we will pass the bill on to them. If we find them, they can pay. We hope that those who might bring a banner with this type of language to the stadium will think twice. After all, it is a bill of 75,000 Kroner,” reports the Mirror.
Serbia, gearing up to face Denmark in the final group game, had already thrown down the gauntlet to UEFA, threatening to walk out of the tournament unless they took action against what they claimed were offensive chants from Croatian and Albanian fans. The Serbian FA has blown the whistle on fans of both Croatia and Albania, accusing them of anti-Serbian songs during their 2-2 clash.
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Furious with the incident, Jovan Surbatovic, the Serbian FA General Secretary, raged: “What happened is scandalous and we will ask UEFA for sanctions, even at the cost of not continuing the competition. We are sure that they will be punished, because they have already responded to our appeal to remove the so-called journalist from Albania from the championship.
“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 about how to proceed.”
He added: “We were punished for the cases of fishing and our fans behaved much better than the others. One fan was fined for racist abuse 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.”
In a separate official communication, the Serbian FA expressed their displeasure: “Due to shameful joint chanting of the fans at the match between Croatia and Albania, the Football Association of Serbia sent a letter to Theodore Theodoridis, the UEFA General Secretary.”