Football
PA Sport 8y

UEFA charges England, Lithuania over crowd trouble in Euro 2016 qualifier

UEFA has charged England and Lithuania over crowd disturbances at the Euro 2016 qualifier in Vilnius on Monday.

England beat Lithuania 3-0 in Vilnius on Saturday to complete their Euro 2016 qualification campaign with a 100 percent record in Group E, though riot police were deployed prior to the game to prevent violence between rival fans.

Disciplinary proceedings have been opened against the Football Association and the Lithuanian Football Federation (LFF) over the trouble which broke out in a section of the crowd just before kickoff.

The LFF has also been charged over breaches of ticketing rules -- it appeared some England fans without tickets gained access to sections reserved for home supporters -- and for having blocked stairways.

The cases will be dealt with by the UEFA's control, ethics and disciplinary body on Oct. 22.

The FA said the disturbances did not involve England supporters who were in the official area or who had bought tickets from the FA.

An FA spokesman said: "We were naturally concerned to witness scenes of disorder in Lithuania. However, we must be clear that these incidents did not happen within the official England Supporters Travel Club area, where supporters who had bought tickets from the FA were housed.

"We would encourage the authorities to identify anybody involved in disorder and deal with them appropriately through the criminal system and with banning orders. We will, of course, fully co-operate with UEFA."

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