Hooligans could lead to Serbian expulsion

UEFA president Michel Platini warned Serbia today they would be thrown out of the Euro 2012 qualifiers and the country's clubs banned from European competition if their fans caused any more crowd trouble.

Platini met Serbian president Boris Tadic and told him the national team and domestic clubs would be expelled from Europe if the Balkan country's supporters continued to cause trouble, Tadic's press office said in a statement.

"Michel Platini told Serbia's president it was UEFA's position that the Serbian national team and the country's clubs would be expelled from all European competition if its hooligans continued with their violent and criminal behaviour," it said.

Platini's warning follows a history of violence involving Serbian fans, most recently a riot in Genoa last October during the country's Euro 2012 Group C qualifier away to Italy.

Serbian supporters forced the game to be abandoned after six minutes when they threw flares at home players, fans and police at the Luigi Ferraris stadium, having attacked their own team bus before the kick off.

Last month the ringleaders of Partizan Belgrade's ultras who beat to death a French fan ahead of the team's Europa League match with Ligue 1 side Toulouse in 2009 received sentences of up to 35 years each in prison.