Serbia has been punished with crowd bans – but it still wants to fill the stands with thousands of children and young adults.
This causes the Swedish national team to react.
– It’s strange, says guild captain Jan Anderson.
After repeatedly breaching UEFA regulations, the Serbian Football Federation was punished with a fan ban. Now it still looks like there will be people in the stands during Saturday’s meeting with Sweden.
UEFA in some cases allows entry to a certain number of children and youth and the Serbian Football Federation has now offered to pay for travel costs for young people aged 7-14.
The Swedish national team management heard that between 8000 and 10,000 youngsters could fill the stands, which made them react.
– It’s strange that you can be punished this way but you still have people there, it’s very strange. But we can’t do anything about it, it’s a rule that’s been around for a while, says the national team manager Stefan Peterson.
“Are there even that many 14-year-olds?”
Also captain of the national team Jan Anderson Amazement at the decision.
– It’s either empty or not empty, but now it’s something in between. It’s probably allowed by the regulations, but it’s a little weird, he says and continues:
– Are there even that many 14-year-olds in Serbia?
Andersson is the one suffering the most with the Swedish fans who were not allowed to watch the match at their venue.
The shame is that our supporters are not allowed to attend, and I think that’s a pity. If there were 10,000 14-year-olds now, we’d like some Swedish supporters there as well. I think this is unfortunate.