Euro 2024: Croatia fined, fans arrested for incidents with Italy

Croatia was fined 105,000 euros ($112,455) by UEFA’s Control, Ethics and Disciplinary Committee for incidents during its Euro 2024 match against Italy, the Croatian Football Association said on Friday, while police told Reuters several arrests in connection with the match .

The atmosphere surrounding the match in Leipzig on Monday was significantly different from the atmosphere during the two previous Euro matches in this city. At the stadium, Croatian fans set off several flares, and plastic cups were repeatedly thrown onto the pitch.

“The Croatian Football Association was fined EUR 105,000 for throwing objects (EUR 45,000), lighting flares (EUR 30,000) and inappropriate behavior (EUR 30,000) by some Croatian fans during the Croatia-Italy match,” reads the statement .

UEFA has not yet officially announced the sanctions.

Croatia were previously fined for flares being thrown by fans during their match against Albania. UEFA is currently conducting a separate investigation into alleged racist or discriminatory behaviour by fans of both teams during that match.

Police in Leipzig were in action before, during and after the Croatia-Italy match. Arrests were made and known troublemakers among Croatian fans were detained until after the match.

“On Monday morning, information appeared that eight so-called high-risk fans who had already been refused entry to Germany by the federal police the previous day,” a police spokesman in Leipzig told Reuters.

“Police forces were able to immediately arrest five people. Five people were brought before a judge during the day, and preventive detention was confirmed by Tuesday morning.”

The remaining three were also later detained, while the eight were released on Tuesday morning and taken to the border.

Police said around 10,000 Croatians took part in the supporters’ march, and several high-risk fans were subjected to preventive police checks. At the stadium, police had to intervene due to the repeated use of pyrotechnics.

After the match, about 20 Croatian fans physically attacked the Italian fans, two of them required hospitalization. The police detained 11 Croatian and Bosniak suspects who are being investigated for causing serious bodily harm.

Leipzig has previously hosted matches between Portugal and the Czech Republic and France and the Netherlands, and police said no arrests had been made in the area around those matches, with the final match in Leipzig taking place on Tuesday when Austria face Turkey in the last 16.