Serbia have been awarded a 3-0 walkover against Albania for last week’s Euro 2016 qualifier, abandoned following a brawl between the players after a flag stunt, but also had three points deducted, the Serbian FA said yesterday.

Serbia have also been ordered to play their next two home games in Group I behind closed doors, while both teams have been fined €100,000 following the chaotic scenes at the match in Belgrade.

UEFA imposed the sanctions after a hearing at its headquarters in Nyon on Thursday.

The match, played on October 14 with no away fans permitted, was interrupted when a flag depicting so-called Greater Albania, an area covering all parts of the Balkans where ethnic Albanians live, was flown over the terraces and pitch by what appeared to be a remote controlled mini drone near the end of the first half.

Serbian player Stefan Mitrovic eventually grabbed the flag at the Partizan stadium, prompting an angry reaction from some Albanian players.

A brawl broke out on the pitch after several Albanian players snatched the flag from Mitrovic and then had to run for cover into the tunnel as the invading home fans attacked them while those on the terraces hurled flares.

Riot police moved in when around a dozen fans invaded the field of play and attacked the Albanian players.

After the UEFA decision, Albania’s Italian coach Gianni De Biasi said: “This decision did not give us justice, they took away what we won on the pitch.”

Artan Hajdari, the lawyer representing Albania’s football federation, told reporters Albania would appeal.

“The decision looks strange... we shall strongly attack the decision legally,” Hajdari said.

“Our fight will continue. Our arguments are very strong and we should be given the three points,” he added.

“Serbia has practically not been punished.”

The game was held against a backdrop of long-running Serb-Albanian tensions over Kosovo, a majority-Albanian former Serbian province that declared independence in 2008.

NATO waged a 78-day air war in 1999 to halt the killing and expulsion of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo by Serbian forces fighting a two-year counter-insurgency war.

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