The Turkish and English Football Associations were charged by UEFA yesterday for the clash between their players at halftime during their European Championship qualifier in Istanbul on Oct. 11.
The charges will be considered by UEFA's Disciplinary Committee on Thursday.
The Turkish FA also faces an additional charge of failing to maintain order in the Sukru Saracoglu stadium where the match ended in a 0-0 draw, a result that was enough to see England qualify for next summer's finals.
UEFA have issued the charges after a review of video evidence, the match reports of the referee Pierluigi Collina and the match observer. No individual players have been cited.
UEFA spokesman Mike Lee told Sky Sports: "On the basis of all the evidence available, the official reports, the statements from the FAs and the video evidence, it was felt there was not sufficient evidence against any particular individual player for violent conduct, therefore there are no charges against individual players.
"These are general charges relating to the two FAs for improper conduct of the players."
Asked if it was now up to the English and Turkish FAs to deal with players if they have an issue with them, Lee said: "They have to deal first of all with the charges we have brought, which will be heard later this week.
"Whether the FAs wish to look at individual players that will be a matter for them because they will not be charged within UEFA's disciplinary process."
Lee said he expected the FAs to be fined if they were found guilty.
"It's not a matter for me to comment on or speculate but on the basis of all the evidence that has been seen, also considering the very important official reports we have, and also the limited number of previous cases relating to incidents in the tunnel, I think if they are found guilty we are looking at some sort of fine."
Video pictures of the fracas were in some ways inconclusive in that they do not show actual punches being thrown.
However they do show England players Emile Heskey, Ashley Cole, Sol Campbell and David James lunging towards their opponents and arms being raised.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier