Defending Supporters At The 2022 World Cup Makes Croatia Kena Dinda, The Amount Almost Achieves IDR 1 Billion

Croatian national team at the 2022 World Cup. (Photo: Twitter/@HNS_CFF)

JAKARTA - Krosia was affected by the disgraceful actions of its supporters at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. FIFA imposed sanctions on Croatia following the singing of xenophobic fans.

Xenophobia is a hatred for people from other countries. In this case, the Croatian fans' chant was directed at Canadian goalkeeper Milan Borjan, when the two countries met in the 2022 World Cup group stage.

The Croatian football federation is required to pay a fine of 5,000 francs or approximately 830 million rupiahs. "Regarding Croatian supporters' behavior during the FIFA World Cup match between Croatia vs Canada on 27 November," the FIFA statement was quoted as saying by Antara via AFP, Thursday, December 8.

During the match that took place in Doha, Croatian fans verbally attacked Borjan, a Serbian ethnicity, who was born in Croatia but left the country when he was a child.

They also unfurled banners, one of which referred to the 1995 military operation that ended the Croatian war of independence.

During and after the operation, more than 200,000 Serbian ethnic residents left the country, including the Borjan family.

Croatia's sentence was imposed after they secured a ticket to challenge Brazil in the quarter-finals on Friday.

FIFA also imposed a fine of 20,000 Swiss francs, equivalent to 332 million rupiah, on the Serbian football federation. This penalty follows a controversial flag depicting Kosovo hanging in the players' locker room during their match against Brazil.

The Kosovo Football Federation (FFK) filed a complaint with FIFA after a photo showing the Serbian flag with a map that belongs to the Kosovo region as their country was branded with the slogan "there will be no surrender".

Kosovo, who is a former province of Yugoslav with the majority of Albania, declared independence from Serbia in 2008, but Belgrade refused to admit it.

Meanwhile, six yellow cards obtained by Saudi Arabia against Argentina and Mexico resulted in the country's federation receiving two sanctions, each of which was a fine of 15,000 Swiss francs or approximately 250 million rupiahs.