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Anti-discrimination council head, on Romania-Kosovo match incidents: Sport is sport, politics outside stadiums
Sport is sport and, as such, politics takes place outside stadiums, National Council for Combating Discrimination (CNCD) President Csaba Asztalos said on Tuesday evening, in the context of the incidents occurred at the Romania - Kosovo football match, on the National Arena stadium in Bucharestm told Agerpres.
"These geopolitical messages have no place in sport. (...) Playing without spectators means a very big financial loss as well, but mainly of support for the national team. (...) UEFA does not allow sending political messages on stadiums. (...) Sport is sport and, as such, politics takes place outside stadiums, in the television studios," the CNCD president said in a phone-in on Antena 3 private television broadcaster.
He brought to mind the matches in the previous preliminaries without spectators, deciding matches. "Spectators matter a lot for the national team. (...) Yes, it is a question of image, there are financial losses. I am waiting for the day when these supporters that have been caught on camera will be sued and will be made accountable, financially included, for their deeds, because this cannot perpetuate," Csaba Asztalos said.
The CNCD president mentioned that the institution he runs collaborates with the Gendarmerie in such matches.
"Nonetheless the Gendarmerie at the moment has not even a legal ground to seize a banner. The law must be modified," he said, underscoring that " that message had no place on the stadium."
The match between Romania's national football team and Kosovo's team, suspended in minute 18, at 0 - 0, due to the demonstrations of some Romanian supporters, on Tuesday evening, on the National Arena in Bucharest, in the Group I of the qualifying play-offs for EURO 2024, was resumed after more than 40 minutes.
In minute 18, fans threw squibs and displayed a banner reading "Bessarabia is Romania, Kosovo is Serbia," which they did not give up in spite of the fact that Romania's national team players Ianis Hagi and Nicolae Stanciu went to talk to the fans.
Moreover, the sound system of the stadium was used to ask spectators to behave in a civilised manner.
The referee sent to teams to the locker rooms after three minutes.
UEFA announced on its website that the match had been "suspended due to discriminatory behaviour."
The teams came back on the pitch and the match was resumed after ten minutes of warm up.
