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Croatia Face Sanctions After Crowd Trouble

Croatian goalkeeper Danijel Subasic falls into the net as the Czech Republic’s Milan Skoda scores in their Group D match in Saint-Etienne on Friday.

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Croatia are being investigated for “the setting off of fireworks, the throwing of objects, crowd disturbance and racist behaviour” by a group of their fans, while a minority of their Turkish counterparts were also seen letting off fireworks, plus invaded the pitch.

It added: “The incident is the product of the passivity of the Croatian state, and we have all become hostages of a group of hooligans”.

Czech Republic captain Tomas Rosicky will have to sit out the rest of Euro 2016 after suffering a thigh injury.

UEFA has opened disciplinary proceedings into the crowd trouble with a ruling expected on Monday.

The assailants then attacked the much bigger, well-behaved section of Croatian fans and a full-scale brawl broke out as the stadium’s public address announcer asked the hooligans “to leave the stadium and stop embarrassing our country”.

Croatia’s fans have built up a track record of trouble in recent years. It’s between the north and the south, Zagreb and Split – the two biggest clubs.

English referee Mark Clattenburg was forced to stop the game with four minutes left while a steward was nearly hit by a firecracker, as was Croatian goalscorer Ivan Perisic.

Markovic also slammed Croatian authorities for failing for years to tackle the hooligan problem in the country.

Bilic briefly outlined the issue fans have against the Croatian Football Association. “Croatian Football Federation is doing its job, and I call upon government institutions to do theirs”.

Croatia’s president Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic slammed the violent fans as “enemies of Croatia”. Euro 2016 has been marred by violence, especially in Marseille last weekend when Russian fans clashed with English supporters before, during and after the Russia vs England game. They must play their next two 2018 World Cup qualifying games behind closed doors. “These are not fans, these are sports terrorists”.

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UEFA ordered the country to play two Euro qualifying matches behind closed doors, deducted a point and fined the federation 100,000 euros over the swastika drawn before the home game against Italy on June 12 previous year.

Croatia fans react as French riot police look up at them after flares were thrown onto the pitch during the Euro 2016 group D football match between Czech Republic and Croatia at the Geoffroy Guichard stadium in Saint Etienne