By Paul Nicholson
October 4 – FIFA has suspended sanctions against Ukraine and Peru for their upcoming World Cup Qualifying matches in October.
Both federations lodged appeals following the decisions passed down by the FIFA Disciplinary Committee September 27. The length of the suspension has not been set as FIFA Appeal Committee will not be able to meet in time for any action to be enforced before the October Qualifying matches.
Ukraine had been ordered to play next month’s potentially decisive World Cup qualifier against Poland in Kharkiv behind closed doors after fans hurled racial abuse during the win over San Marino earlier this month. The country had also been banned from playing in the Arena Lviv stadium for the whole of the 2018 World Cup qualification programme, and fined CHF45,000 ($49,000).
Peru were sanctioned to play their next official match behind closed doors following crowd disturbance incidents in the World Cup qualifying match against Uruguay on September 6. The Peruvian federation had been fined CHF20,000 ($22.000).
The lifting of the Ukraine decision will potentially have more effect than the Peru decision as Ukraine are locked in a battle with England in the race for group winners and an automatic place in next year’s finals in Brazil. A match behind closed doors in Ukraine would have handed advantage to England.
FIFA said in a statement when handing down the sanction that “several racist and discriminatory incidents were apparently perpetrated by local supporters during the (San Marino) match, in particular by displaying neo-Nazi banners and by making monkey noises and gestures as well as Nazi salutes”.
FIFA also said there were “several incidents involving pyrotechnical devices” that violated safety regulations.
According to Football Against Racism in Europe (FARE), Ukrainian supporters waved racist banners and a large T-shirt with the number 88 printed on it, which is a neo-Nazi code for ‘Heil Hitler’. FARE also reported that a group of 30 people were caught aiming monkey impersonations at Brazilian-born Ukraine international Edmar.
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