(Newswire.net — October 15, 2014) — Near the end of the first half of the Euro 2016 qualifications match between Serbia and Albania, a remote-controlled drone dangled the Greater Albania flag over the pitch, precipitating a riot. The conflagration resulted in dozens of injuries and arrests.
A Serbian player managed to snatch the flag from the drone. When an Albanian player tried to take it from him all hell broke loose. Enraged fans jumped over the protective fence surrounding the pitch and joined the fight, a serious infraction according to FIFA guidelines.
“Greater Albania” is a term – and flag – that incorporates claims to regions in the neighboring states. The areas include Kosovo, the Presevo Valley of Serbia, territories in southern Montenegro, northwestern Greece and a part of western Macedonia.
The flag stunt was particularly incendiary given the historic relationship between these two countries, since Albanians from the southern Serbian province of Kosovo gained independence in 1999.
Reports emerged late in the evening that the brother of the Albanian Prime Minister masterminded the plot and was arrested as he was operating the remote-controlled drone.
Olsi Rama was sitting in VIP box next to the Serbian minister of Police [internal affairs], Nenad Stefanovic. According to Stefanovic, when Rama was arrested, he pulled out a US passport and said “I am American citizen, you can’t detain me”.
“Rama was escorted from the stadium strait for the airport and has left the country.” said Mr. Stefanovic.
The drone was launched from the roof of a nearby church that had no security. According to media reports, several Albanians involved with the deployment of the drone took a couple of test flights a day before the match, letting the drone fly over the center of Belgrade, but without a flag. Many crews use drones similar to the drone involved in the incident.
“This was a political provocation.” said Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic to Serbian daily newspaper Blic.
“The main question for me is how will the European Union and UEFA react, because if someone from Serbia had unveiled a flag of Greater Serbia in Tirana or Pristina (capital of Kosovo) it would already be on the agenda of the UN Security Council.” Mr. Dacic said.
However, the overall opinion is that UEFA may have made a serious error allowing these two countries to play each other in a European Championship qualifying match.
Prior to the match, Serbian officials warned UEFA that the match should have been played without spectators because of the high political tensions between the countries. UEFA prevented Azerbaijan-Armenia and Spain-Gibraltar meeting in Euro qualifiers for just such political reasons.
The match eventually restarted, but was called off in the second half after flares landed on the pitch with the score at 0-0.
“What happened is something we can’t comprehend at the moment” said Serbia captain Branislav Ivanovic.
“On behalf of my team, all I can say is that we wanted to carry on and that we shielded the Albanian players every step of the way to the tunnel (after the riot broke out).” Ivanovic said.
Once the pitch was cleared, UEFA recommended that it was safe for match to continue, however, the Albanian team said after talking to the officials that they were unfit physically and mentally to carry on.
“You all saw what happened and I cannot comment on who is to blame or what to blame. I will submit a report with my colleagues to UEFA and UEFA will decide what will happen further.” said UEFA match delegate Harry Been.