UEFA to probe Slovakia incidents

UEFA will investigate the crowd trouble which occurred at Saturday's EURO 2004™ qualifying match between Slovakia and England in Bratislava.

Extensive inquiry
European football's governing body said on Monday that an extensive inquiry would be made into clashes between police and spectators, as well as alleged incidents of racist abuse against English players.

November decisions
The game, which England won 2-1, saw a number of crowd disturbances during the first half. UEFA will study the reports made by the match referee, Italy's Domenico Messina, and match delegate Wolfgang Thierrichter (Austria), and speak to both associations as part of their investigation. Any decisions are not expected until next month.

UEFA campaign
The disturbances during and around the match in Bratislava came amid a concerted campaign by UEFA to tackle crowd violence and racism within football. Last week, UEFA wrote to the European football community urging that every possible measure be taken to eradicate racism and violence from Europe's stadiums.

Ten-point plan
UEFA has also given its full backing to a ten-point plan put together by the pan-European anti-racist network FARE, which was issued last week, and which proposed a series of measures which could be taken to eliminate intolerance and racist conduct.