UEFA denounces Croatia for fascist fan flag in the Qualifiers

The Croatian team runs the risk of suffering a harsh punishment from UEFA in the coming days. This Wednesday, the entity denounced the Croatian Football Federation because fans displayed a fascist flag in the stands during a Euro 2024 qualifying game.

The flag refers to the Ustase regime, a radical right-wing party in Croatia between the 1920s and 1940s. The party was linked to a Croatian Nazi paramilitary terrorist organization, accused of murdering thousands of Serbs, Jews, and political dissidents during the Second World War.

Fans displayed the flag during Friday’s 5-0 rout of Latvia in the Croatian city of Rijeka. The complaint could lead to the Croatian team playing their next match in the Qualifiers without the presence of fans in the stadium, against Turkey, on October 12th, in Osijek.

The risk is great because the Croatian federation was already undergoing conditional proceedings for “discriminatory behavior”, due to other complaints of this type. One of them had taken place in a UEFA Nations League game, in a match against the Netherlands, in June. Due to inappropriate fan behavior, Croatia were unable to sell tickets to their fans for Monday’s match against Armenia – they won 1-0.

The Croatian team leads Group D of the Qualifiers, with three wins in four games. Add 10 points.