So as you may know, the playoff match between Switzerland and Turkey ended in a righteous brawl that involved... well... pretty much everybody in the stadium. As a quick glance at this photograph indicates, sandwich metaphors are not entirely inappropriate.
Today FIFA handed down the punishments and boy do they ever suck for the Turks. They've been ordered to play their next six games behind close doors and on neutral ground. This is a big deal for Turkey because their home crowds are legendarily intimidating and have played a big part in their recent success over the last ten years. Those 60,000 screaming partisans will now be replaced by a handful of disinterested janitorial staff. And there won't be those "Welcome to Hell" signs at Istanbul airport in the Euro 2008 qualifiers. Perhaps they could get some locals at whatever country the Turks play in to greet the opposing team with signs that say "Welcome to Heck".
Needless to say, it severely hampers their Euro 2008 qualification chances. If you're a Greek fan, you probably haven't stopped laughing yet.
For the Swiss, who have more immediate World Cup concerns, things aren't so bad. They lose Benjamin Huggel with a six match suspension, but he was primarily a substitute in their qualifying campaign.
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1 comment:
Not that this kind of violence is anything new - it's the reason why my father never took his ten year old daughter to see Brazil play.
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