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Not caving yet UEFA won't ban Yugoslavia; Ireland threatens to forefit
Posted: Wednesday June 02, 1999 09:48 PM
DUBLIN, Ireland (AP) -- Ireland will refuse to admit Yugoslavia's national soccer team for a game this weekend in Dublin, the government announced Wednesday. Saturday's scheduled contest with Ireland -- part of a tightly contested qualifying round for the 2000 European Championship -- would have been the first for Yugoslavia since NATO began launching air strikes on the Balkans nation March 24. Ireland, which is not a NATO member, had repeatedly urged the European soccer authorities UEFA to cancel the game in recognition of Yugoslavia's atrocities against ethnic Albanians in Kosovo. But at a meeting Wednesday in Germany, UEFA leaders resisted face-to-face appeals from sports ministers from Ireland and several other European Union nations. In its statement, the government said it had to refuse to grant visas "given the illegal and appalling actions of the Yugoslav regime against the people of Kosovo." Chiding UEFA for failing "to accept its responsibilities," the statement said the government "is convinced that it would not be appropriate for this football match to take place in Ireland." The Football Association of Ireland had already pledged to ban the Yugoslav flag and anthem from Dublin's Lansdowne Road stadium if the game went ahead, while the major soccer fans' organization had called for the public not to attend. Earlier Wednesday, Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern told lawmakers it was "not for the government to force a sporting decision" on UEFA. "But if the body refuses to make that decision, then we will have a decision to make." Ireland's refusal to host the game leaves the Irish squad open to probable punitive action from UEFA, which could either award an automatic loss or schedule a new game with Yugoslavia outside Ireland. The Irish are currently in a four-way tie with Yugoslavia, Croatia and Macedonia in the championship's Group 8. Only the winner is guaranteed a place in Euro 2000. Minutes before the government's announcement, an agitated Irish manager Mick McCarthy repeatedly asked journalists at a Dublin press conference: "Do you think the match should go ahead?" When he didn't get a clear response, McCarthy suggested the answer had to be no. "I think there's a war going on is the easy answer," he said. UEFA has already barred Yugoslavia from staging any home
matches, rescheduling these in Salonica, Greece. Its next game
there is June 8 against Group 8 cellar-dweller Malta.
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