Basketball Euroleague punishes Red Star, Galatasaray

BELGRADE - A disciplinary judge of the basketball Euroleague has punished Red Star Belgrade and Galatasaray over crowd trouble associated with their Euroleague Round 6 Group D encounter in Istanbul, when Marko Ivkovic, a 25-year-old supporter of the Serbian club, was killed before the game.

Red Star Belgrade were handed down a EUR 50,000 fine and will have to play one home match behind closed doors, with Galatasaray ordered to pay a EUR 100,000 fine and play three matches behind closed doors, the Euroleague announced on its official website.

The decision to also punish Red Star has caused dismay at the Serbian club, since one of their supporters was killed by Galatasaray fans before the game.

On November 21, Galatasaray fans attacked a group of around 400 supporters of the Serbian team outside the Abdi Ipekci Arena.

The Serbians were unable to enter the arena as the organiser broke an earlier agreement and prevented them from buying tickets.

This triggered fan violence and incidents outside the arena and forced the police to intervene.

Red Star Basketball Club President Nebojsa Covic told reporters that Turkish police failed to take adequate security measures and that Marko Ivkovic was stabbed to death while he was moving away from the clashes, in which he did not participate.

He said that 60 Red Star supporters who got inside the Abdi Ipekci Arena were subjected to chants of "(Throw) the Serbs down the well" and provocations with the flags of Kosovo (Serbia's southern province, unilaterally proclaimed independent by ethnic Albanians in 2008).

In the decision to punish both teams, the Euroleague explained that "the sanctions are based on infractions of the competition by-laws...