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Denmark to appeal UEFA decision

AFP
AFP - [email protected]
Denmark to appeal UEFA decision

Sweden were awarded a 3-0 victory over Denmark by European football's governing body UEFA on Friday for their Euro 2008 qualifier last weekend.

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UEFA took the decision after the match had to be stopped at the end of the match last Saturday when the German referee Herman Fandel was assaulted by a spectator with the score at 3-3.

UEFA also imposed a 100,000 Swiss francs (580,000 kronor, $81,000) fine on the Danes, who must also play their next four home matches more than 250km from Copenhagen with the next one behind closed doors.

Veteran Danish international Christian Poulsen also received a three match suspension, the first of which he served against Latvia last Wednesday, for the red card he received from Fander in the 89th minute of the match for punching Swedish rival Markus Rosenberg in the stomach.

UEFA's decision means Sweden lead their Euro 2008 group from Spain by three points with Denmark in fourth place, eight points adrift but with a game in hand.

The Danish Football Federation (DBU) said they would appeal against what they considered particularly harsh sanctions.

"They are especially harsh, given the previous decisions in such cases by UEFA," said Jim Stjerne Hansen, the DBU general-secretary.

"With my 17 years of experience in this arena (he is a UEFA Cup vice-president of discipline and control) I believe I have good reasons to appeal this decision which will hit us hard, both financially and sportswise," he added.

The Swedes, though, believed that justice had been done.

"A clear decision. There were no alternatives", Swedish Football Association president Lars-Åke Lagrell said on the organization's web site.

"It is what I hoped for and expected. But of course it feels good to have the decision confirmed," coach Lars Lagerbäck said on the Swedish Football Association's website.

Fandel confessed to having been left in a state of shock for several minutes after the incident.

"It was clear very quickly that I had to stop the match in order to highlight the violence of the players and the spectators," said Fandel, who revealed that he had received apologies from several Danish football authorities including coach Morten Olsen.

The assailant was arrested by the security guards at the stadium, was released on Sunday and apologized in the Danish press on Monday, explaining that he had drunk between 15-18 beers on the day of the match.

"I still cannot quite believe what happened," he said.

"I am an idiot," added the supporter, who broke a finger when he punched a wall on hearing that the referee would be recommending awarding the match to Sweden as a result of what he had done.

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