Slovakia defender Jan Durica has been fined 5,000 Swiss francs (around €4,500) by FIFA for his comments after the World Cup qualifying defeat to England.

Following his side’s 1-0 Group F loss in Trnava on September 4, Durica spoke about referee Milorad Mazic, who had sent off Slovakia’s Martin Skrtel with the score still 0-0.

Durica was quoted by several national newspapers as saying: “There is only one place at the World Cup. Why should Slovakia go there when we have England in the group?

“Of course, they will always prefer the stronger team. Probably, the referee exactly knew how to do it. Today we might have played more than England.”

As well as Durica’s fine emerging yesterday, FIFA also announced it had imposed sanctions on several nations’ football associations for “discriminatory and unsporting conduct of fans, including homophobic chants in some instances” during recent World Cup qualifying matches.

Chile has been hit with the greatest punishment, while Albania, Italy, Argentina and Brazil are also among those to have been sanctioned.

In May, when Chile was punished over homophobic chanting by supporters, the team were banned from playing at their Estadio Nacional Julio Martinez Pradanos in Santiago for two official matches.

The first was the clash with Bolivia earlier this month, while there was a suspension on the second match ban being implemented subject to a probation period of two years.

FIFA said after another infringement during that probation period, Chile had been banned from playing the match against Venezuela in March at the venue, and fined a total of 65,000 Swiss francs (around €59,000) for two cases.

Honduras was also fined 65,000 Swiss francs for two cases, while Albania was fined 50,000, El Salvador 45,000, Italy, Mexico and Peru 30,000, Paraguay and Argentina 25,000 and Canada and Brazil 20,000 for individual cases