Football
ESPN staff 9y

Montenegrin chief blasts 'barbarians' after Russia Euro qualifier abandoned

Momir Djurdjevac, the general secretary of the Montenegrin FA. said fans had "left the impression of barbarians" after Friday's Euro 2016 qualifier at home to Russia had to be abandoned.

After only a minute had been played, Russia goalkeeper Igor Akinfeev was hit on the head by a flare thrown from the stands and had to be stretchered off for hospital treatment.

The match resumed after a suspension, only to be abandoned for good after the awarding of a penalty to Russia after 66 minutes -- taken by Roman Shirokov and saved by Montenegro's Vukasin Poleksic -- caused missiles to be thrown onto the pitch from the stands.

The ball then went out of play, and when a Russia player went to retrieve it he appeared to be hit by an object, which he showed to Aytekin, who stopped the match for a second time.

Fighting between players and staff from both teams broke out, with the Russia players walking off the pitch, followed by their Montenegro counterparts.

Momir Djurdjevac told reporters: "These fans sing 'Montenegro we love you,' but throw flares, insult rivals and cause all sorts of incidents every time they turn up. That's outright hypocrisy.

#INSERT type:image caption:Igor Akinfeev was hit on the back of the head by a flare a minute into the match. END#

"We have left the impression of barbarians and this is a complete disaster. It seems we don't deserve to have a nation, a soccer team or a berth in a major tournament.

"As far as I am concerned, the game should not have continued after the first-minute incident. We can only thank God that no one was seriously hurt.

"We will in all likelihood pay a hefty fine and say goodbye to a major tournament -- but what scares me is that this can happen again. Someone must step forward and say: 'Enough.'

"Who wants to play for the national team under such circumstances?

"These players have a big dream and it's to qualify with our tiny nation for a major tournament, but we are going nowhere."

UEFA has said it will await full reports on what happened before beginning disciplinary proceedings.

In a statement, European football's governing body said crowd problems were the reason that the match had been called off.

"The UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying match between Montenegro and Russia was abandoned in the 67th minute following crowd disturbances at the Gradski Stadion in Podgorica,'' the statement, published on the official UEFA website, said.

Russia, level with Montenegro on five points, could be awarded the victory.

The Russian FA has submitted an official protest, with president Nikolai Tolstoy saying: "We can only regret the ugly behaviour of Montenegro fans.

"The Russian team were forced to continue the match, but I want to stress that we warned the delegates and have filed a protest to UEFA. In our view, the match should be forfeited by Montenegro."

Information from the Press Association was used in this report

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