Turkey was ordered to play its next six competitive home matches at neutral venues without fans and pay a SF200,000 (129,000 euros) fine for violence at a World Cup qualifier against Switzerland.
Turkey will be under strength for those games after FIFA, world soccer's governing body, also suspended three of its players for as long as six matches and banned assistant coach Mehmet Ozdilek from "any football-related activity" for a year. One Switzerland player and the team's physiotherapist were also suspended.
The punishment will affect Turkey's qualifying matches for the 2008 European Championship. It has a friendly against the Czech Republic scheduled for March 1 before qualifying matches against Greece, Hungary, Malta, Norway, Moldova and Bosnia-Herzegovina, although its schedule hasn't been settled.
Turkey must play the six games at least 500km from Turkey.
A five-member FIFA disciplinary committee reviewed the accounts of six participants in a brawl that followed the Nov. 16 match in Istanbul and decided on the sanctions at a two-day session this week. Turkey won the game 4-2 but Switzerland advanced on away goals, sparking scuffles between players and coaching staff in the tunnel on the way to the locker room.
RSS