Swiss don’t fear Shaqiri and Xhaka bans over gestures, as Serbia vent fury
The president of Switzerland’s football federation does not expect Fifa to suspend Granit Xhaka and Xherdan Shaqiri for their goal celebrations against Serbia.
Peter Gillieron says he expects a “quick decision” after Fifa announced at the weekend that it had opened a disciplinary case for the players making hand gestures of a two-headed eagle that is an Albanian national symbol.
Xhaka and Shaqiri, who both scored in the 2-1 Group E victory over Serbia on Friday, have ethnic Albanian heritage linked to Kosovo, a former Serbian province that declared independence in 2008. Serbia does not recognise that independence.
In an interview published by a Swiss news website yesterday, Gillieron said that “I don’t have any concerns” about Fifa’s disciplinary committee suspending the players for Switzerland’s final group game against Costa Rica on Wednesday.
Fifa rules prohibit political gestures by players or fans, and let the disciplinary panel
0 Xherdan Shaqiri and Granit Xhaka’s two-headed eagle gesture. act on “serious infringements which have escaped the match officials’ attention”.
It was a controversial match in other ways, too, and Serbia yesterday filed an official complaint to Fifa alleging “biased officiating” by German referee Feliz Brych.
In a statement on its website, the Serbia FA said it had submitted to the governing body “seven videos that clearly showed tendency in officiating of the referee Brych to the detriment of our national team”.
Serbian officials have complained vociferously since the match in Kaliningrad that their team were not awarded a penalty for a second-half challenge by two Swiss defenders on Aleksandar Mitrovic and that Brych did not consult the Video Assistant Referee about the incident.
They also have complained that Brych showed four Serbia players yellow cards but only one Swiss player was booked, and questioned whether a German should have been chosen to officiate the game in the first place. “We are not clear how the German referee could have been appointed for the match when it is well known that one of Swiss confederation cantons is a German canton,” said the statement. 0 Serbia’s FA has quizzed Fifa about this penalty-box tussle involving Aleksandar Mitrovic.