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Much of the international media coverage of the violence in the Partizan Belgrade stadium has focused on the stunt of a drone flying an Albanian banner, the ensuing brawl and pitch invasion by angry Serb fans. But, there were additional elements to the violence, some of which happened way before the drone moment, that are either not being reported by international media or being under-reported. Here are some of them:
1. Albanian fans were not allowed to attend the match. Serb authorities said they would arrest anyone who showed any symbol of the visiting team in the stadium — restrictions that are almost unheard of in international football.
2. The Serb crowd chanted, “Ubij, Ubij Siptar” – “Kill, Kill the Albanians,” throughout the 40 minutes the game was played. They used the Milosevic-era derogatory term for Albanian, which is akin to the n-word in North America.
3. The stadium was filled with Serb nationalistic political banners, like “Kosovo is Serbia” and other slogans relating to Bosnia and Croatia. The Serb fans loudly booed the Albanian national anthem.
4. Hard objects and fireworks were thrown on Albanian players well before the drone started flying.
5. Ivan Bogdanovic, the Serb hooligan who led the 2010 Italy match riot, was seen invading the pitch. He served jail time in Serbia after the Italy incident, in which he burned an Albanian flag. That game had to be abandoned as well. Yesterday he led a group of masked supporters into the pitch before being kicked out by police.
6. More than half of Albania’s national team has roots in Kosovo, which split from Serbia in the late 90s in a violent conflict that ended through a NATO intervention 15 years go. The alliance’s flag was also burned in Belgrade last night.
7. Despite the harsh political atmosphere in the stadium, the Albanian national team went to play football, and it managed to overcome a shaky first few minutes, moving to gain the upper hand in the field when the interruption happened.
8. The game was already suspended for fireworks thrown in the pitch, when the referee and the players first noticed the drone carrying the banner.
9. The drone came from the outside of the stadium, which means nobody knows who flied it, so there can be no punishment, because the rules were no flags or national symbols inside the stadium by Albanian fans.
10. Regulations state that if objects are thrown in the pitch, only the referee is authorized to move them. Serbian defender Mitrovic tried to catch the banner, and when Albanian players Xhaka and Lila tried to stop him, the Serbs started the fight.
11. The fans rushed into the field and threw chairs and fought Albanian players. When entering the tunnel to leave the field, they found themselves under a rain of hard objects.
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