NYON, Switzerland (AP) — Serbian soccer club Red Star Belgrade was fined by UEFA for fans chanting in honor of convicted war criminal Ratko Mladic, who died on the day of a Europa League game last week.
Red Star fans chanted the name of Mladic, saluted him and showed a banner thanking and praising him at a 5-1 loss at Czech club Viktoria Plzeň on Aug. 27.
Mladic was the Bosnian Serb commander who oversaw the massacre of more than 8,000 Muslims in Srebrenica in 1995 and other war crimes. Mladic died in The Hague where he was serving a life sentence for genocide. He was 84.
UEFA said late Friday its judges fined Red Star 90,000 euros ($104,500) for charges including chants not fit for a sports event plus “racist and/or discriminatory behavior.”
Red Star also was banned from selling tickets to fans for its next away game in a UEFA competition. That will apply when the Serbian champion visits Swiss club Lugano in the third-tier Conference League.
UEFA deferred another away tickets ban on Red Star for a two-year probationary period.
Red Star, the European champion in 1991, has a long track record of disciplinary sanctions from UEFA for misconduct by fans including racist slurs against Roma people.
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