TIRANA, April 19 – The Court of Arbitration for Sport has heard the appeals of Albania and Serbia football officials and their testimonies that challenge the UEFA sanctions for their abandoned Euro 2016 qualifier held last year in October in Belgrade.
The match was stopped before halftime and then called off after physical violence targeted against Albanian players. A drone with an Albanian.
Albania allegedly refused to play after being attacked by Serbian fans, something which they are still contesting as the British referee had not plainly and openly asked them to return to the match.
UEFA ordered Albania to forfeit the match, and awarded Serbia a 3-0 default win.
But to penalize Serbia it stripped the points from them and also decided it to hold two home matches without fans.
UEFA also fined both federations 100,000 euros.
Tirana says they could not continue the match after the violence exerted against them. They also said that UEFA played double standards last week when it decided to forfeit the match to the guest team, this time Russia for a similar event, but to a much lower scale of violence, in Montenegro.
The CAS has said it will prepare the verdict until June 13.
Albania hosts Serbia in the return match Oct. 8.
Serbia already served one match of its empty-stadium sanction. It lost to Denmark 3-1 in November and next hosts Armenia on Sept. 4.
At the midway point in the five-team group, Portugal and Denmark are in the two automatic qualifying places for Euro 2016 in France.
Albania is in third place, level on points with Denmark, which guarantees at least a spot in the playoffs. The Albanians have seven points, six ahead of fourth-place Serbia.
