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UEFA has opened disciplinary proceedings against Legia Warsaw and Borussia Dortmund because of incidents during Wednesday's Champions League match in Warsaw. Hosts Legia, the first Polish side to appear in the Champions League group stage in 20 years, have been charged with crowd disturbances and racist behaviour and four other cases, European football's governing body announced. They could now face sanctions up to a "disqualification from the competition," according to the UEFA Disciplinary Regulations, if previous incidents are taken into consideration. During the 6-0 loss to Dortmund, Legia fans had directed offensive chants at Borussia Dortmund. Some have claimed the chants were anti-Semitic but the club denied that was the case, saying reporters misheard the wording, although they accepted that the chants were abusive. Observers from the anti-discrimination group FARE, though, said they witnessed anti-Semitism at the match and reported it to UEFA. Seweryn Dmowski, Legia's adviser to the board, told ESPN FC on Friday: "The UEFA match delegate didn't qualify any fan behaviour as racist. We have the open investigation by UEFA because there was an additional report by the delegate of FARE." The Polish champions were ordered to play two European home matches behind closed doors for racism by their fans following an away match at Belgian club Lokeren in November 2014, while fans displayed a "Jihad Legia" banner before a Europa League game at Hapoel Tel Aviv in 2011. UEFA also sanctioned fans' racist behaviour by closing a section of Legia's stadium at a Champions League playoff in the 2013-14 season. UEFA's regulations on racism and discriminatory conduct states that "a second offence is punished with one match played behind closed doors and a fine of €50,000" while "any subsequent offence is punished with more than one match behind closed doors, a stadium closure, the forfeiting of a match, the deduction of points or disqualification from the competition." Dmowski said he fears the stadium will be closed for the Champions League home match against Real Madrid on Nov. 3. "If UEFA state that it was racism, it is a big problem for us and probably the stadium will be closed. If not, different scenarios will appear," he said. Referring to the incidents at the Lokeren match, Dmwoski added: "We are still on a trial period." However, UEFA did not want to confirm to ESPN FC that this was the case. "We need to wait for the decision of the disciplinary body in order to see if this previous sanction will be taken into consideration," a spokesperson for the governing body said. Dmowski also admitted that he could not guarantee that racist chanting did not take place during the Dortmund game. "We are not idiots, and we don't want to tell people you don't see what you see. There probably were some individuals who may have chanted this way," Dmowski said. "We want to identify all of them and ban them from the stadium." Legia have also been charged with crowd disturbances for an incident near the away end after 30 minutes when supporters the block next to the away section and one man used pepper spray in the area. Already on Thursday, five people had been detained by Warsaw police and 15 had been handed stadium bans. Dmowski said: "We have banned 25 fans more. At this moment we have identified 40 people in the clashes. The investigations are still ongoing, and I hope that after the weekend there will be around 60." He said it illustrates that Legia "would never hesitate to put an individual punishment on those responsible." UEFA also charged Dortmund for two violations under article 16 of the UEFA Disciplinary Regulations, which covers "the invasion or attempted invasion of the field of play; the throwing of objects; the lighting of fireworks or any other objects; the use of laser pointers or similar electronic devices; the use of gestures, words, objects or any other means to transmit any message that is not fit for a sports event, particularly messages that are of a political, ideological, religious, offensive or provocative nature; acts of damage; the disruption of national or competition anthems; any other lack of order or discipline observed inside or around the stadium." The UEFA Control, Ethics and Disciplinary Bod will deal with the cases on Sept. 28.
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