Soccer Field Swastika Punishment Upheld Against Croatia

European soccer body UEFA has upheld its decision to deduct a point from Croatia’s Euro 2016 qualifying tally for a racist incident in June.
“UEFA’s Appeals Body has upheld the decision to dock Croatia one point for racist behavior at their qualifying Group H game against Italy,” UEFA said on Friday.
“The appeal by the HNS (Croatian football federation) was rejected.”
The Croatians were ordered to play their next two home games in UEFA competition behind closed doors and fined 100,000 euros ($113,690.00).
The decision means Croatia are third in Group H on 14 points from eight games, four behind leaders Italy and two adrift of second-placed Norway.
They are at home to Bulgaria and away to Malta in their final two qualifiers in October.
UEFA punished the Croatians after their fans used a chemical agent to imprint a swastika on the pitch of Split’s Poljud stadium before their 1-1 draw with Italy in June.
The swastika became visible during the match, played behind closed doors for a previous offense by Croatian fans who shouted racist chants during a 5-1 home win over Norway in March.
The top two teams from each of the nine groups and the best third-placed team will qualify automatically for next year’s 24-nation tournament along with hosts France.
The other eight third-placed teams will enter a two-legged playoff for the remaining four berths.
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Most Popular
- 1
Fast Forward Ye debuts ‘Heil Hitler’ music video that includes a sample of a Hitler speech
- 2
Culture Cardinals are Catholic, not Jewish — so why do they all wear yarmulkes?
- 3
News School Israel trip turns ‘terrifying’ for LA students attacked by Israeli teens
- 4
Fast Forward Student suspended for ‘F— the Jews’ video defends himself on antisemitic podcast
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward Police clash with pro-Palestinian protesters in Brooklyn as Columbia library takeover fallout continues
-
Opinion This week proved it: Trump’s approach to antisemitism at Columbia is horribly ineffective
-
Yiddish קאָנצערט לכּבֿוד דעם ייִדישן שרײַבער און רעדאַקטאָר באָריס סאַנדלערConcert honoring Yiddish writer and editor Boris Sandler
דער בעל־שׂימחה האָט יאָרן לאַנג געדינט ווי דער רעדאַקטאָר פֿונעם ייִדישן פֿאָרווערטס.
-
Fast Forward Trump’s new pick for surgeon general blames the Nazis for pesticides on our food
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.