FM: Stadium incident was planned political provocation

Ha! Serbia bears no responsibility! Dear oh dear. Shouting death to Albanians from the off, throwing flares onto the stadium and pelting Albanian players with chairs and other objects! A few of the crowd even managed to get onto the pitch and throw punches. No no its true, none of those are the fault of Serbs. I lost count of how many times the stadium announcer kept saying 'Molim vas'. Although, he too seemed to be caught in the moment, a lot of the time any pleading was followed by 'za Srbije'. I started to get the feeling that he was high on something. Lets face it, Serbian hooligans have previous records of this, in Rome, abusing black members of the England U21 team only a couople of years abck and even recently fans of Partizan Belgrade caught with an anti-Semitic banner. but no no, Serbia never bears responsibility, its always outsiders

Is a flag reason enogh to fight against an other team? What happened in Belgrade is a shame for serbian football and the serbian people! To react in this way ist not civilized!

It is insane how the Serbian Foreign Ministers claims Serbia is not responsible for the brawl and the fight. If it is not the Serbian authorities' responsibility to provide a safe playing environment when the match is played in Belgrade, then whose responsibility might it be? I am sorry Serbia has such uncouth and unreasonable politicians.

Provocation with a flag is one thing. Attacking players by known hooligans and even security personal is a complete different level. On one video even Ivan "Grozny" Bogdanov was running on the field. Why the security personal admitted that lunatic to such a game? And why the security/police allowed so many hooligans to enter the field?

It is not that Albanians were totally innocent, but security was in total charge of Serbian authorities and they completely failed.

There is no doubt that the flag incident was wrong and not acceptable, but what followed was even worse, and was caused by serbian holligans and a lack of security in that Belgrade stadium. I can't remember a football game where the oposing team had to flee out of the stadium and was attacked by fans and players in a manner we saw last night. Not a word about that is mentioned in the B92 article, nor did Dacic mention any of that. To say that Serbia has no responsibily for any of that shows the state of mind of that politician.

Serbia bears no responsibility? Did he really say that? Maybe he missed the part where the police let thugs get on the field, including a known criminal/repeat offender hooligan who was allowed to sit next to the field. I guess we will let UEFA be the judge of responsibility, but I hope they ban both Albania and Serbia from hosting any international matches for a year.

Luckily Willi Pfaff is a very old man. A Nazi dinosaur if you will. Get it in while you can, old man.
(Ari Gold, 15 October 2014 12:06)

Talking about hate displayed... you certainly top anybody, you moron. Trust me, I will outlive you creepy bastard.

If anybody shows bigotry, it is you in your blind fascist serb nationalism. Had you been borne in the 30, you would be a Nazi. You argumentation and comments are the same. People like you are just full of hate and are unable to see two sides of a picture.

There is no doubt that the flag incident was wrong and not acceptable, but what followed was even worse, and was caused by serbian holligans and a lack of security in that Belgrade stadium. I can't remember a football game where the oposing team had to flee out of the stadium and was attacked by fans and players in a manner we saw last night. Not a word about that is mentioned in the B92 article, nor did Dacic mention any of that. To say that Serbia has no responsibily for any of that shows the state of mind of that politician.
(willi pfaff, 15 October 2014 11:35)

Nevermind Willi Pfaff. One google search of this name and you will see his entire existence on the internet is to slander the Serbian nation. He literally breathes to make racist, bigoted comments about Serbs and has on his own admission on the internet expressed glee over the thousands of Serbian civilians who were murdered in Kosovo-Metohija.

In no way is the reaction of the fans worse than an Albanian drone which could have easily been carrying explosives flying over Belgrade depicting a map of the fictitious Greater Albania.... and then the Albanian players rushing to attack the Stefan Mitrovic for bringing it down to proceed with the match.

Luckily Willi Pfaff is a very old man. A Nazi dinosaur if you will. Get it in while you can, old man.

WELL THINK ABOUT ! I DO BELIEVE THAT FLAG WAS DONE BY THE SERBS JUST TO MIX THINKS UP

So just because a flag was droned in the serb fans had to invade the field and start to hit the players?
Serbs, please wake up from your insane past. You must prevail.
There were hundreds of serb flags in the game, and just because of one albanian flag that got in there you had to attack the players?

What about your provocations against the albanian national anthem when all serbs were yelling "Serbia Serbia"?
Your provocations are allowed but not the provocations from the other side?
As your montenegrin brother, I am so sorry for your twisted ways of thinking.

Serbia bears no responsibility? Did he really say that? Maybe he missed the part where the police let thugs get on the field, including a known criminal/repeat offender hooligan who was allowed to sit next to the field. I guess we will let UEFA be the judge of responsibility, but I hope they ban both Albania and Serbia from hosting any international matches for a year.
(Josip, 15 October 2014 10:29)

It was an act of blatant provocation. Whoever planned it, hoped for the desired outcome and they got it. The build up to the match was very tense with heightened police security and incidences before the match. I was talking to my brother who was in Belgrade yesterday on the phone and even he said that the atmosphere throughout the city was nothing like he had seen it before. I knew that there was going to be trouble and the slightest provocation would see to that. I feared the worst and lo and behold...

On reflection, if Albania wanted to declare war on Serbia, what they did last night was a very creative way of going about it.

Right now i'm in work, walking around with a name tag that says 'Bekim' on it. Thanks a million.

two sides of a picture.
(willi pfaff, 15 October 2014 12:46)

Two sides? Do a google search on Willi Pfaff, your entire reason for using the internet is to demonize Serbs. You will outlive me? No you wont. You are a bitter old man in the twilight of his life, venting as much hatred as he can before his time is up.

I do not express hatred towards non-Serbs the way you do towards Serbs. I am opposed to separatism and am opposed to your country occupying Serbia for the 3rd time in the last century. You on the other hand have the same type of venomous hatred that your Nazi fathers had before you. You are unable to call a spade, a spade. Unable to state the obvious and that this incident was completely started by the Albanian side, and again escalated by the Albanian side when their players stormed Stefan Mitrovic for taking down this provocative banner.

Obviously you will not admit even the obvious. Your rage, bigotry, racism and hatred towards Serbia completely consumes you.

@Rory Yeomans

Shoutings of death to Shiptars were heard way before any drone emerged. As did flares appearing the pitch. Don't worry, selective vision is what you're famous for, so am not surprised you failed to notice those. p.s. displays of extreme Serbian nationalist slogans make an annual appearance in Kosovo during Vidovdan

It is often the case in football that he who retaliates receives greater punishment than he who provokes. The stupidity of whoever was responsible for the drone/flag knows no bounds and if it is proven independently (ie not just the word of Dacic) that official persons were involved then decisive action should be taken. Likewise, there is no excuse for a pitch invasion by fans and attacks on players. Turning the other cheek is by far the greater demonstration of being a man than starting a riot. UEFA may follow William Shakespeare's words "a plague on both your houses". I find this very sad as Iva will now come back to Chelsea in a bad mood!

willi pfaff said, "There is no doubt that the flag incident was wrong and not acceptable, but what followed was even worse, and was caused by serbian holligans and a lack of security in that Belgrade stadium."

What followed was an albanian soccer player physically assaulting the Serb player because he took down the politically charged banner not the albania flag. You are guilty of selective condemnation, willi, and therefore a hypocrite.

Your bias against Serbs is obvious and so old. Keep your german arrogance and hypocrisy in Offenbach.

If Dacic takes no responsibility for the violence caused by Serbian fans, then really he is the mirror image of the comments by you and other Albanian commentators here who take absolutely no responsibility for their provocations and the violent behaviour of their players. I wonder how Albanian fans would have reacted if Serbian fans had flown a drone with a flag of Greater Serbia in Pristina with an image of Vojislav Seselj on the front and then when an Albanian player had tried to remove it, Serbian players had forcibly tried to prevent him? That's the fact of what happened last night as anyone who has watched the video can see. The subsequent violence of Serbian hooligans was unacceptable but so was the original provocation and the attempts of your Prime Minister Edi Rama to try and justify it. I am just astonished you are so blinded by nationalism you can't see that.

What else can you expect from albans the most primitive people on earth. They cant do anything without provoking. They cant even play a game without causing trouble. They behave like savages in a jungle.

As usual, blame is placed and rationalized conveniently at the moment people start paying attention. What's missing is that the match went on rather peacefully for the first 42 minutes until someone decided to fly that stupid Greater Albania flag which, true to Albanian form, is exaggerated even for a Greater X claim, since it included most of Montenegro and even Sandzak, which Albanians still feel is theirs even though like 16 Albanians live there.

And what people also miss is that the Albanian players attacked Mitrovic after he pulled the flag down. Did Serb players attack Albanian? No. Two Albanian players got incensed AFTER they saw a flag clearly meant to provoke get pulled down, and only then did a fight break out where Serb players tried to intervene and break up the conflict.

Then top it off with provocations in Kosovo and rallies in Tirana and it becomes painfully obvious whose responsible. I don't recall hearing any Albanian house in northern Kosovo getting attacked. And if that happens, then I'll take back what I said. As of now, it's clear who organized and who is responsible for it. Absolutely shameful and disgusting.

This guys is ridiculous.

This was a game between Serbia and Albania, of course there will be provocation. Does that mean that you should let the fans loose and through stones and chairs at the oponent players?

Serbian fans whistled all the way through while the albanian national anthem was playing and one could hear all the time the chanting "Kill the albanians". Someone might just call this a provocation....

Maybe someone should remind this guy what Serbs did in Italy 4 years ago... there were no albanians there.

Iviqa Dhaciq, you are to blame for a lot of this! You prop up Hashish Thaci the organ trafficker and narco-terrorist by meeting with him in your post as Serbian Prime Minister and you wonder why something like this happens? You have done nothing but concede to terrorists and separatists and you wonder why they don't treat you with any respect?

Let's hope this provocation was a wake up call to the EU quislings in Belgrade. Not likely, but let's hope.

Not necessarily it was a provocation because people make stupid things very often. But what really surprised me is how could they arrange such a match ? It was quite predictable that they will have problems. With the Albanians to have zero chance to go further they could quite put the two teams in different groups. Either the European elites are not interested in the reconciliation process or they became prisoners of their own mantras.
.

ned taylor

“ Rote: Why should UEFA take account of petty and/or historic grievances “

Because the only criteria of the truth is practice and it tells us that the match was organized wrong. Not only the droners are guilty but UEFA as well. I loved Platini as a football player but in UEFA he became a politician not just a bureaucrat. See what they’ve done. Football fans are a bit crazy everywhere so it was stupid to trust them part of the peace process in Balkans. Europeans always try to be political correct and here’s a result. They have not stopped (like Russia did) the planes delivering Ebola to the continent. They will do it when it will be too late. They close their eyes at the rising fascism in Ukraine until it’s too late. They were arming ISIS until it was too late. Ect ect Such is their mentality. They solve current problems and think too little of what will happen tomorrow.

"There were hundreds of serb flags in the game, and just because of one albanian flag that got in there you had to attack the players? "
(Montenegrin, 15 October 2014 15:16)

An Albanian Flag? Funny. Being a Pole, would you say if the brother of the German president would display an old German Nazi 'flag' decorated with a nice Swastika and a map displaying Germany in the borders of 1937 during a football match in Poland? This is comparable, and not showing THE Albanian flag.

You can clearly hear the Serb crowd chanting "ubi ubi ubi shiptar". Yeah but the Serbs bear no responsibilty....Right.

Albania gets top points for full equality for the mentally disabled. Not only did one/several think it was a good idea, the first reaction of the albanian footballer was to attack the serbian footballer.

Whatever the Eurocommissars down the road from me say and try and spread the blame and make excuses, the video is there. There's absolutely no mistaking it. Unless you are blind, stupid or other.

As for the Albanian 'but, but...' crowd, sure the Serbs bear some responsiblity, but to excuse the behavior of the idiots who flew the drone and the attack by the the albanian footballer because the Serbs there became upset makes me wonder if the mental disability isn't much more widespread. Take the pills, stay at home and off the Internet if you are incapable of being decent, for god's sake.

"h) deny that in any other situation any other group would respond in similar fashion to brazen and blatant provocations against them as did Serbs,"

I'm not sure, Albanians are expected to tolerate all sorts of provocative banners that Serbs bring during Vidovan. Of course, those banners are dismissed as harmless Cyrillic decorations but thats another thing

and yr country is seriously attempting to get into the EU? it is unimaginable. try some civilized standards for once, starting with the media! you are so out of control - a great shame upon you!!
(roberto, 15 October 2014 21:15)

another full-time anti-Serbian bigot on this site. UEFA has blamed both sides. The Albanians for the drone and for the players violently rushing to attack Stefan Mitrovic for taking it down. And the Serbian fans for their reaction. Notice I say reaction which clearly means that what STARTED this was the drone and the Albanian players looking to get violent thereafter.

Throwing things at the Albanians wasn't nice and shouldn't have happened. But what started this was Albanian aggression (again). And if you say differently, you are a racist Serbophobe who should seek professional help.

I think you should seek professional help Ari Gold, just for holding the opinions that you do

This "game" and ensuing debacle has let out aN explosion of hatred, par usual. mostly directed against albanians and individual dissidents. There is no point in our aiming anger and indignation at the individual haters, nasty pieces that they are. the real question is why does the media here promote the nastiest form of chetnik nationalism, continue to censor dissidents, and facilitate every single personal attack against us.

All of this gives the message to the haters and racists: keep it up!! and they do. we saw results, bigtime, at the game.

and yr country is seriously attempting to get into the EU? it is unimaginable. try some civilized standards for once, starting with the media! you are so out of control - a great shame upon you!!

Ah good, both roberto and Willi once again offer their clearly unbiased insight into something that jives with their prejudices. Roberto, good to see you're still here after a few days hiding and saying nothing, absolutely nothing, about the disgusting display of hatred and intolerance in Kosovo by your favorite people against your least favorite as Decani monastery. Do you or Willi still think you have a shred of credibility around here? Your "fans" are Albanian nationalists who promote the type of hatred and intolerance you only see on display among Serbs. Willi at least gets away with condemning the Albanian stunt but you frisco are the worst of the worst when it comes to hypocritical comments about intolerance and violence. Take your one-sided opinions elsewhere. You're nothing but a fraud who conveniently comments when you can and predictably remain silent when objectivity is needed. That you're reduced to calling it "chetnik media" shows how far you've fallen and what you're left to use in order to make a point.

A. Big. Fat. Fraud. You. Are.
Always was.
Always will be.

Albania gets top points for full equality for the mentally disabled.
(EU Dude, 15 October 2014 14:07)

I believe the medical diagnosis is being mentally shiptarded :)

@Comm

Funny, you dismiss threatening banners that Serbs bring with them to Kosovo during Vidovdan as harmless Cyrillic writing. This on the other hand is very serious(!) The flares before hand, the screams of death to Albanians, no no, they are just the sort of things people say when high on testosterone. and never mind about the pitch invaders and the pelting of Albanian players with chairs and other objects. no no, fans pay money to enter the stadium, they should throw punches at the opposing side if the so wish.

"This has never happened on any football game and was prepared in advance."

Dcic is lying or has a convniently short memory. The Serbian hooligans that interrupted the game with Italy in 2010 were the same as the ones on the field yesterday, Ivan and his buddies. They needed no provocation back then, they burned an albanian flag at a match with Italy, LOL.
At the time, Dacic was minister of interior, and the words he said were: the italian police handled this badly, they should have talked with us, we know how to deal with the hooligans. Nooo, you do not know how to deal with the hooligans. Now, it is a political provocation.
This guy is incredible :).

so when mitrovic grabbed the albanian flag that floated (was delivered) over the pitch, why was he instantaly attacked by other players. aren't the 25 men on the pitch suppose to be professionals. when one player picks up trash that has made it onto the pitch other's shouldn't assault them. when a flag, an object that has mean in normal circumstances, flutters onto a pitch or a court, its is classified as trash, no matter how important it might be in normal circumstances.
there's lots of bashing of serb fans, but no one is talking about the players.

try some civilized standards for once, starting with the media! you are so out of control - a great shame upon you!!
(roberto, 15 October 2014 21:15)

Not a bad assessment of the situation roberto, if you

a) completely ignore the political provocation from the Albanian side,
b) factor out the two Albanian players attacking the Serbian player after he grabbed the flag,
c) overlook the Serb players and riot police attempting to break up the fight and shield the Albanian players
d) dismiss the utter arrogance of Rama throwing his American passport around like a Get Out of Jail Free Card,
e) forget the racist chants Albanians from Kosovo shouted "Save Bosnia, Death to Serbia" at a match in May,
f) forget the attacks by Albanian extremists against Serbs in Kosovo both in the last 24 hours related to the match and in the past 15 years related to embedded Albanian intolerance,
g) downplay the media spin in Albanian and Kosovo Albanian newspapers over the event, and
h) deny that in any other situation any other group would respond in similar fashion to brazen and blatant provocations against them as did Serbs,

you actually have a point to make. It requires a tremendous leap in logic or a full frontal lobotomy, but with either you're argument is convincing. Good for you. You get a cookie.

Keep fighting the good fight from your IP address in frisco and I expect another ill-placed hypocritical hissy fit from you the next time Serbs do something you don't like.

Albanians are expected to tolerate all sorts of provocative banners that Serbs bring during Vidovan. Of course, those banners are dismissed as harmless Cyrillic decorations but thats another thing
(Nikolle, 16 October 2014 13:09)

That's expected but rarely ever happens. Those wearing T-shirts local KPS found "provocative" because of Cyrillic would question your conclusions.

Ari Gold: Yes, you are right that the incident began when the flag entered the stadium. I am always amused by the use of the words "aggression" and "provocation" in the Balkans. Someone punching me in the face or threatening to do so is aggression, not the flying of a flag. Equally, provocation is only effective if the person(s) to whom it is aimed allows themselves to be provoked rather than simply shrugging it off and getting on with life. Try it Ari, it's easy. You and I know that whether or not Albanians want a Greater Albania they have no more means to achieve this than if I say I want to rule the world.

On another point, whoever may have "started" the trouble will be of little relevance to UEFA when considering charges of failing to stop a pitch invasion. Where were the police? I saw a few flailing their batons at the fringes of the tunnel but not a single one on the pitch trying to prevent the fighting. Clearly the incident with the drone/flag will need to be investigated as it was ridiculous, but whereas ground security is clearly the responsibility of the Serbian FA and beyond dispute, responsibility for the drone/flag has yet to be proven........note I say proven, not suspected. I was highly amused that Rama described it as the Albanian flag. It might have borne the same colours but it was certainly NOT the Albanian flag unless the official version now includes the preposterous map that this one depicted.

Rote: Why should UEFA take account of petty and/or historic grievances when making the draw for European competitions? Russia would have a smaller and smaller pool of countries to play against, no England v Scotland, no Ireland v Northern Ireland, no Turkey v Greece, no Serbia v Croatia (and Bosnia) and so on. If you enter a competition you are declaring that you are able to host matches where players' safety is guaranteed irrespective of the opposition. If you can't or won't do so then you have no place in international football. I saw many people on the pitch last night but struggled to see a single policeman, this needs explaining along with why the drone and flag were there at all and why dozens of fans were able to enter the pitch unchallenged. My solution for these two teams is to play matches behind closed doors with no fans from either side. There are precedents for this and it would avoid the sort of riot that we saw last night.

Is a flag reason enogh to fight against an other team? What happened in Belgrade is a shame for serbian football and the serbian people! To react in this way ist not civilized!

WELL THINK ABOUT ! I DO BELIEVE THAT FLAG WAS DONE BY THE SERBS JUST TO MIX THINKS UP

Ha! Serbia bears no responsibility! Dear oh dear. Shouting death to Albanians from the off, throwing flares onto the stadium and pelting Albanian players with chairs and other objects! A few of the crowd even managed to get onto the pitch and throw punches. No no its true, none of those are the fault of Serbs. I lost count of how many times the stadium announcer kept saying 'Molim vas'. Although, he too seemed to be caught in the moment, a lot of the time any pleading was followed by 'za Srbije'. I started to get the feeling that he was high on something. Lets face it, Serbian hooligans have previous records of this, in Rome, abusing black members of the England U21 team only a couople of years abck and even recently fans of Partizan Belgrade caught with an anti-Semitic banner. but no no, Serbia never bears responsibility, its always outsiders

It is insane how the Serbian Foreign Ministers claims Serbia is not responsible for the brawl and the fight. If it is not the Serbian authorities' responsibility to provide a safe playing environment when the match is played in Belgrade, then whose responsibility might it be? I am sorry Serbia has such uncouth and unreasonable politicians.

Serbia bears no responsibility? Did he really say that? Maybe he missed the part where the police let thugs get on the field, including a known criminal/repeat offender hooligan who was allowed to sit next to the field. I guess we will let UEFA be the judge of responsibility, but I hope they ban both Albania and Serbia from hosting any international matches for a year.

There is no doubt that the flag incident was wrong and not acceptable, but what followed was even worse, and was caused by serbian holligans and a lack of security in that Belgrade stadium. I can't remember a football game where the oposing team had to flee out of the stadium and was attacked by fans and players in a manner we saw last night. Not a word about that is mentioned in the B92 article, nor did Dacic mention any of that. To say that Serbia has no responsibily for any of that shows the state of mind of that politician.
(willi pfaff, 15 October 2014 11:35)

Nevermind Willi Pfaff. One google search of this name and you will see his entire existence on the internet is to slander the Serbian nation. He literally breathes to make racist, bigoted comments about Serbs and has on his own admission on the internet expressed glee over the thousands of Serbian civilians who were murdered in Kosovo-Metohija.

In no way is the reaction of the fans worse than an Albanian drone which could have easily been carrying explosives flying over Belgrade depicting a map of the fictitious Greater Albania.... and then the Albanian players rushing to attack the Stefan Mitrovic for bringing it down to proceed with the match.

Luckily Willi Pfaff is a very old man. A Nazi dinosaur if you will. Get it in while you can, old man.

two sides of a picture.
(willi pfaff, 15 October 2014 12:46)

Two sides? Do a google search on Willi Pfaff, your entire reason for using the internet is to demonize Serbs. You will outlive me? No you wont. You are a bitter old man in the twilight of his life, venting as much hatred as he can before his time is up.

I do not express hatred towards non-Serbs the way you do towards Serbs. I am opposed to separatism and am opposed to your country occupying Serbia for the 3rd time in the last century. You on the other hand have the same type of venomous hatred that your Nazi fathers had before you. You are unable to call a spade, a spade. Unable to state the obvious and that this incident was completely started by the Albanian side, and again escalated by the Albanian side when their players stormed Stefan Mitrovic for taking down this provocative banner.

Obviously you will not admit even the obvious. Your rage, bigotry, racism and hatred towards Serbia completely consumes you.

What else can you expect from albans the most primitive people on earth. They cant do anything without provoking. They cant even play a game without causing trouble. They behave like savages in a jungle.

There is no doubt that the flag incident was wrong and not acceptable, but what followed was even worse, and was caused by serbian holligans and a lack of security in that Belgrade stadium. I can't remember a football game where the oposing team had to flee out of the stadium and was attacked by fans and players in a manner we saw last night. Not a word about that is mentioned in the B92 article, nor did Dacic mention any of that. To say that Serbia has no responsibily for any of that shows the state of mind of that politician.

Luckily Willi Pfaff is a very old man. A Nazi dinosaur if you will. Get it in while you can, old man.
(Ari Gold, 15 October 2014 12:06)

Talking about hate displayed... you certainly top anybody, you moron. Trust me, I will outlive you creepy bastard.

If anybody shows bigotry, it is you in your blind fascist serb nationalism. Had you been borne in the 30, you would be a Nazi. You argumentation and comments are the same. People like you are just full of hate and are unable to see two sides of a picture.

Albania gets top points for full equality for the mentally disabled. Not only did one/several think it was a good idea, the first reaction of the albanian footballer was to attack the serbian footballer.

Whatever the Eurocommissars down the road from me say and try and spread the blame and make excuses, the video is there. There's absolutely no mistaking it. Unless you are blind, stupid or other.

As for the Albanian 'but, but...' crowd, sure the Serbs bear some responsiblity, but to excuse the behavior of the idiots who flew the drone and the attack by the the albanian footballer because the Serbs there became upset makes me wonder if the mental disability isn't much more widespread. Take the pills, stay at home and off the Internet if you are incapable of being decent, for god's sake.

Provocation with a flag is one thing. Attacking players by known hooligans and even security personal is a complete different level. On one video even Ivan "Grozny" Bogdanov was running on the field. Why the security personal admitted that lunatic to such a game? And why the security/police allowed so many hooligans to enter the field?

It is not that Albanians were totally innocent, but security was in total charge of Serbian authorities and they completely failed.

Iviqa Dhaciq, you are to blame for a lot of this! You prop up Hashish Thaci the organ trafficker and narco-terrorist by meeting with him in your post as Serbian Prime Minister and you wonder why something like this happens? You have done nothing but concede to terrorists and separatists and you wonder why they don't treat you with any respect?

Let's hope this provocation was a wake up call to the EU quislings in Belgrade. Not likely, but let's hope.

If Dacic takes no responsibility for the violence caused by Serbian fans, then really he is the mirror image of the comments by you and other Albanian commentators here who take absolutely no responsibility for their provocations and the violent behaviour of their players. I wonder how Albanian fans would have reacted if Serbian fans had flown a drone with a flag of Greater Serbia in Pristina with an image of Vojislav Seselj on the front and then when an Albanian player had tried to remove it, Serbian players had forcibly tried to prevent him? That's the fact of what happened last night as anyone who has watched the video can see. The subsequent violence of Serbian hooligans was unacceptable but so was the original provocation and the attempts of your Prime Minister Edi Rama to try and justify it. I am just astonished you are so blinded by nationalism you can't see that.

willi pfaff said, "There is no doubt that the flag incident was wrong and not acceptable, but what followed was even worse, and was caused by serbian holligans and a lack of security in that Belgrade stadium."

What followed was an albanian soccer player physically assaulting the Serb player because he took down the politically charged banner not the albania flag. You are guilty of selective condemnation, willi, and therefore a hypocrite.

Your bias against Serbs is obvious and so old. Keep your german arrogance and hypocrisy in Offenbach.

"There were hundreds of serb flags in the game, and just because of one albanian flag that got in there you had to attack the players? "
(Montenegrin, 15 October 2014 15:16)

An Albanian Flag? Funny. Being a Pole, would you say if the brother of the German president would display an old German Nazi 'flag' decorated with a nice Swastika and a map displaying Germany in the borders of 1937 during a football match in Poland? This is comparable, and not showing THE Albanian flag.

@Rory Yeomans

Shoutings of death to Shiptars were heard way before any drone emerged. As did flares appearing the pitch. Don't worry, selective vision is what you're famous for, so am not surprised you failed to notice those. p.s. displays of extreme Serbian nationalist slogans make an annual appearance in Kosovo during Vidovdan

This "game" and ensuing debacle has let out aN explosion of hatred, par usual. mostly directed against albanians and individual dissidents. There is no point in our aiming anger and indignation at the individual haters, nasty pieces that they are. the real question is why does the media here promote the nastiest form of chetnik nationalism, continue to censor dissidents, and facilitate every single personal attack against us.

All of this gives the message to the haters and racists: keep it up!! and they do. we saw results, bigtime, at the game.

and yr country is seriously attempting to get into the EU? it is unimaginable. try some civilized standards for once, starting with the media! you are so out of control - a great shame upon you!!

try some civilized standards for once, starting with the media! you are so out of control - a great shame upon you!!
(roberto, 15 October 2014 21:15)

Not a bad assessment of the situation roberto, if you

a) completely ignore the political provocation from the Albanian side,
b) factor out the two Albanian players attacking the Serbian player after he grabbed the flag,
c) overlook the Serb players and riot police attempting to break up the fight and shield the Albanian players
d) dismiss the utter arrogance of Rama throwing his American passport around like a Get Out of Jail Free Card,
e) forget the racist chants Albanians from Kosovo shouted "Save Bosnia, Death to Serbia" at a match in May,
f) forget the attacks by Albanian extremists against Serbs in Kosovo both in the last 24 hours related to the match and in the past 15 years related to embedded Albanian intolerance,
g) downplay the media spin in Albanian and Kosovo Albanian newspapers over the event, and
h) deny that in any other situation any other group would respond in similar fashion to brazen and blatant provocations against them as did Serbs,

you actually have a point to make. It requires a tremendous leap in logic or a full frontal lobotomy, but with either you're argument is convincing. Good for you. You get a cookie.

Keep fighting the good fight from your IP address in frisco and I expect another ill-placed hypocritical hissy fit from you the next time Serbs do something you don't like.

So just because a flag was droned in the serb fans had to invade the field and start to hit the players?
Serbs, please wake up from your insane past. You must prevail.
There were hundreds of serb flags in the game, and just because of one albanian flag that got in there you had to attack the players?

What about your provocations against the albanian national anthem when all serbs were yelling "Serbia Serbia"?
Your provocations are allowed but not the provocations from the other side?
As your montenegrin brother, I am so sorry for your twisted ways of thinking.

As usual, blame is placed and rationalized conveniently at the moment people start paying attention. What's missing is that the match went on rather peacefully for the first 42 minutes until someone decided to fly that stupid Greater Albania flag which, true to Albanian form, is exaggerated even for a Greater X claim, since it included most of Montenegro and even Sandzak, which Albanians still feel is theirs even though like 16 Albanians live there.

And what people also miss is that the Albanian players attacked Mitrovic after he pulled the flag down. Did Serb players attack Albanian? No. Two Albanian players got incensed AFTER they saw a flag clearly meant to provoke get pulled down, and only then did a fight break out where Serb players tried to intervene and break up the conflict.

Then top it off with provocations in Kosovo and rallies in Tirana and it becomes painfully obvious whose responsible. I don't recall hearing any Albanian house in northern Kosovo getting attacked. And if that happens, then I'll take back what I said. As of now, it's clear who organized and who is responsible for it. Absolutely shameful and disgusting.

Ah good, both roberto and Willi once again offer their clearly unbiased insight into something that jives with their prejudices. Roberto, good to see you're still here after a few days hiding and saying nothing, absolutely nothing, about the disgusting display of hatred and intolerance in Kosovo by your favorite people against your least favorite as Decani monastery. Do you or Willi still think you have a shred of credibility around here? Your "fans" are Albanian nationalists who promote the type of hatred and intolerance you only see on display among Serbs. Willi at least gets away with condemning the Albanian stunt but you frisco are the worst of the worst when it comes to hypocritical comments about intolerance and violence. Take your one-sided opinions elsewhere. You're nothing but a fraud who conveniently comments when you can and predictably remain silent when objectivity is needed. That you're reduced to calling it "chetnik media" shows how far you've fallen and what you're left to use in order to make a point.

A. Big. Fat. Fraud. You. Are.
Always was.
Always will be.

Albanians are expected to tolerate all sorts of provocative banners that Serbs bring during Vidovan. Of course, those banners are dismissed as harmless Cyrillic decorations but thats another thing
(Nikolle, 16 October 2014 13:09)

That's expected but rarely ever happens. Those wearing T-shirts local KPS found "provocative" because of Cyrillic would question your conclusions.

Serbia bears no responsibility? Did he really say that? Maybe he missed the part where the police let thugs get on the field, including a known criminal/repeat offender hooligan who was allowed to sit next to the field. I guess we will let UEFA be the judge of responsibility, but I hope they ban both Albania and Serbia from hosting any international matches for a year.
(Josip, 15 October 2014 10:29)

It was an act of blatant provocation. Whoever planned it, hoped for the desired outcome and they got it. The build up to the match was very tense with heightened police security and incidences before the match. I was talking to my brother who was in Belgrade yesterday on the phone and even he said that the atmosphere throughout the city was nothing like he had seen it before. I knew that there was going to be trouble and the slightest provocation would see to that. I feared the worst and lo and behold...

On reflection, if Albania wanted to declare war on Serbia, what they did last night was a very creative way of going about it.

Right now i'm in work, walking around with a name tag that says 'Bekim' on it. Thanks a million.

Not necessarily it was a provocation because people make stupid things very often. But what really surprised me is how could they arrange such a match ? It was quite predictable that they will have problems. With the Albanians to have zero chance to go further they could quite put the two teams in different groups. Either the European elites are not interested in the reconciliation process or they became prisoners of their own mantras.
.

ned taylor

“ Rote: Why should UEFA take account of petty and/or historic grievances “

Because the only criteria of the truth is practice and it tells us that the match was organized wrong. Not only the droners are guilty but UEFA as well. I loved Platini as a football player but in UEFA he became a politician not just a bureaucrat. See what they’ve done. Football fans are a bit crazy everywhere so it was stupid to trust them part of the peace process in Balkans. Europeans always try to be political correct and here’s a result. They have not stopped (like Russia did) the planes delivering Ebola to the continent. They will do it when it will be too late. They close their eyes at the rising fascism in Ukraine until it’s too late. They were arming ISIS until it was too late. Ect ect Such is their mentality. They solve current problems and think too little of what will happen tomorrow.

and yr country is seriously attempting to get into the EU? it is unimaginable. try some civilized standards for once, starting with the media! you are so out of control - a great shame upon you!!
(roberto, 15 October 2014 21:15)

another full-time anti-Serbian bigot on this site. UEFA has blamed both sides. The Albanians for the drone and for the players violently rushing to attack Stefan Mitrovic for taking it down. And the Serbian fans for their reaction. Notice I say reaction which clearly means that what STARTED this was the drone and the Albanian players looking to get violent thereafter.

Throwing things at the Albanians wasn't nice and shouldn't have happened. But what started this was Albanian aggression (again). And if you say differently, you are a racist Serbophobe who should seek professional help.

It is often the case in football that he who retaliates receives greater punishment than he who provokes. The stupidity of whoever was responsible for the drone/flag knows no bounds and if it is proven independently (ie not just the word of Dacic) that official persons were involved then decisive action should be taken. Likewise, there is no excuse for a pitch invasion by fans and attacks on players. Turning the other cheek is by far the greater demonstration of being a man than starting a riot. UEFA may follow William Shakespeare's words "a plague on both your houses". I find this very sad as Iva will now come back to Chelsea in a bad mood!

This guys is ridiculous.

This was a game between Serbia and Albania, of course there will be provocation. Does that mean that you should let the fans loose and through stones and chairs at the oponent players?

Serbian fans whistled all the way through while the albanian national anthem was playing and one could hear all the time the chanting "Kill the albanians". Someone might just call this a provocation....

Maybe someone should remind this guy what Serbs did in Italy 4 years ago... there were no albanians there.

@Comm

Funny, you dismiss threatening banners that Serbs bring with them to Kosovo during Vidovdan as harmless Cyrillic writing. This on the other hand is very serious(!) The flares before hand, the screams of death to Albanians, no no, they are just the sort of things people say when high on testosterone. and never mind about the pitch invaders and the pelting of Albanian players with chairs and other objects. no no, fans pay money to enter the stadium, they should throw punches at the opposing side if the so wish.

You can clearly hear the Serb crowd chanting "ubi ubi ubi shiptar". Yeah but the Serbs bear no responsibilty....Right.

Albania gets top points for full equality for the mentally disabled.
(EU Dude, 15 October 2014 14:07)

I believe the medical diagnosis is being mentally shiptarded :)

I think you should seek professional help Ari Gold, just for holding the opinions that you do

Rote: Why should UEFA take account of petty and/or historic grievances when making the draw for European competitions? Russia would have a smaller and smaller pool of countries to play against, no England v Scotland, no Ireland v Northern Ireland, no Turkey v Greece, no Serbia v Croatia (and Bosnia) and so on. If you enter a competition you are declaring that you are able to host matches where players' safety is guaranteed irrespective of the opposition. If you can't or won't do so then you have no place in international football. I saw many people on the pitch last night but struggled to see a single policeman, this needs explaining along with why the drone and flag were there at all and why dozens of fans were able to enter the pitch unchallenged. My solution for these two teams is to play matches behind closed doors with no fans from either side. There are precedents for this and it would avoid the sort of riot that we saw last night.

"This has never happened on any football game and was prepared in advance."

Dcic is lying or has a convniently short memory. The Serbian hooligans that interrupted the game with Italy in 2010 were the same as the ones on the field yesterday, Ivan and his buddies. They needed no provocation back then, they burned an albanian flag at a match with Italy, LOL.
At the time, Dacic was minister of interior, and the words he said were: the italian police handled this badly, they should have talked with us, we know how to deal with the hooligans. Nooo, you do not know how to deal with the hooligans. Now, it is a political provocation.
This guy is incredible :).

Ari Gold: Yes, you are right that the incident began when the flag entered the stadium. I am always amused by the use of the words "aggression" and "provocation" in the Balkans. Someone punching me in the face or threatening to do so is aggression, not the flying of a flag. Equally, provocation is only effective if the person(s) to whom it is aimed allows themselves to be provoked rather than simply shrugging it off and getting on with life. Try it Ari, it's easy. You and I know that whether or not Albanians want a Greater Albania they have no more means to achieve this than if I say I want to rule the world.

On another point, whoever may have "started" the trouble will be of little relevance to UEFA when considering charges of failing to stop a pitch invasion. Where were the police? I saw a few flailing their batons at the fringes of the tunnel but not a single one on the pitch trying to prevent the fighting. Clearly the incident with the drone/flag will need to be investigated as it was ridiculous, but whereas ground security is clearly the responsibility of the Serbian FA and beyond dispute, responsibility for the drone/flag has yet to be proven........note I say proven, not suspected. I was highly amused that Rama described it as the Albanian flag. It might have borne the same colours but it was certainly NOT the Albanian flag unless the official version now includes the preposterous map that this one depicted.

so when mitrovic grabbed the albanian flag that floated (was delivered) over the pitch, why was he instantaly attacked by other players. aren't the 25 men on the pitch suppose to be professionals. when one player picks up trash that has made it onto the pitch other's shouldn't assault them. when a flag, an object that has mean in normal circumstances, flutters onto a pitch or a court, its is classified as trash, no matter how important it might be in normal circumstances.
there's lots of bashing of serb fans, but no one is talking about the players.

"h) deny that in any other situation any other group would respond in similar fashion to brazen and blatant provocations against them as did Serbs,"

I'm not sure, Albanians are expected to tolerate all sorts of provocative banners that Serbs bring during Vidovan. Of course, those banners are dismissed as harmless Cyrillic decorations but thats another thing