‘We shouldn’t play in such an abusive and violent place’
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future.’ But the Serbian FA yesterday denied accusations of racism and tried to blame the English for the problems.
Incredibly, uEFA last night announced disciplinary proceedings against both the FA and the Serbian FA, charging them over the improper conduct of their players.
The Serbian FA have also been charged with alleged racist chanting by their fans. The cases will be discussed by uEFA on November 22. But Horne’s comment has raised doubts that England will take a team to Serbia again.
That is a move that would almost certainly end football relations between the nations and land uEFA and FIFA with a problem when organising future qualifying schedules at all levels of the game.
England under 21s’ black players were subjected to racist abuse during the Euro 2013 qualifier and were then attacked by Serbian players and officials during a melee at the final whistle.
Sunderland defender Rose was sent off when he expressed his frustration at the abuse by kicking the ball away.
In a statement on their website, the Serbian FA denied the scuffles were prompted by racism issues and accused Rose of inciting problems in the crowd.
The statement read: ‘ The FA of Serbia absolutely refuses (sic) and denies that there were any occurrences of racism before and during the match. Danny Rose behaved in an inappropriate, unsportsmanlike and vulgar manner towards the supporters and for that he was shown a red card.’
Rose said: ‘I remember getting slapped twice and then I got ushered away. That’s when I kicked the ball — and the referee sent me off.
‘As I went off, again there was monkey chanting, but the monkey chanting started long before I got sent off. In the second half I had two stones hit me on the head when I went to get the ball for a throw-in. Every time I touched the ball there was monkey chanting again. They have to be banned.’
Last night uEFA were urged by the FA, the Government and Professional Footballers’ Association chairman Clarke Carlisle to throw the book at the Serbians, whose fans have faced several accusations of racial abuse in the past.
Horne added: ‘We call on uEFA to take the strongest possible action against the Serbian FA, their supporters and anyone found guilty of being involved in the numerous instances of violence and abuse. We must defend Danny Rose, who was sent off due to the frustration of being a target of racial abuse.’
Sports minister Hugh Robertson was shown a YouTube clip filmed at the game which appears to show monkey chants. Robertson, who has written to uEFA president Michel Platini urging tough action, said: ‘No- one representing their country should be subjected at a sports fixture to this sort of vile abuse.’
But Rio Ferdinand accused the FA of double standards. He tweeted: ‘Agreed, All jump on bandwagon when judging everyone else but all bottle merchants when it’s on home soil #DoubleStandards’. The tweet was a reference to how Ferdinand believes he and his brother Anton were treated during the investigation into the racist comments aimed by John Terry at Anton during a game. POLICE were last night set to investigate a message on England under 21 striker Marvin Sordell’s Facebook page. A photograph of Sordell was uploaded, depicting a gun pointed at the 21-year- old with blood across his face and chest and the message: ‘dont f*** with the millwall.’ The father of the individual accused of posting the image contacted Sportsmail last night to convey his son’s regret at his actions. He also revealed his son plans to write a letter of apology to Sordell, who accused some Millwall fans of racially abusing him and Bolton team-mates 12 days ago.