UEFA charges Montenegro over alleged racist chants

Montenegro have been charged by UEFA following allegations of racist behaviour during their Euro 2020 qualifier against England on Monday.

England boss Gareth Southgate claimed full-back Danny Rose was targeted after picking up a late yellow card, while Callum Hudson-Odoi revealed he heard “monkey stuff” in Podgorica.

Montenegro coach Ljubisa Tumbakovic said he had “not heard nor noticed any chanting”, but the nation has received multiple charges from UEFA, including one for racist behaviour.

The governing body has also charged Montenegro for setting off fireworks, throwing objects, crowd disturbances and the blocking of stairways.

UEFA’s Control, Ethics and Disciplinary board will hear the case on May 16.

Teenager Hudson-Odoi, who made his first senior start for England in their 5-1 win, had urged UEFA to “deal with it properly” while Raheem Sterling suggested “a proper stance” would be to issue Montenegro with a stadium ban.

Best way to silence the haters (and yeah I mean racists) #2019 #getsomeeducation pic.twitter.com/ohhkOJtdey

— Raheem Sterling (@sterling7) March 25, 2019

Southgate stressed he believed sanctions alone would not get to the root of the issue.

“Sanctions are only ever of any use if they lead to education,” he said at his post-match news conference. “Sanctions are worthless if there’s nothing alongside that to help educate people.

“My kids don’t think for one minute about where people are born, what language they speak, what colour they are. There’s an innocence about young people that is only influenced by older people. We have to make sure that the education is right for everybody.

“In our country, the same. I’m not sitting here just criticising what’s happened tonight because in our country we have the same issue. We’re not free of it.

“You can sanction clubs but frankly that’s not going to stop one or two people who [are] of the mindset from doing what they want to do.

“We have to make sure that we educate young people because we have a better chance with young people. We’ve got to lead that as far and wide as we can.”