Kiev, Oct 4 (IANS) The Federation of International Football Association (FIFA) has lifted the one-match ban against Ukrainian fans for racist crowd behaviour, an official of Ukraine’s Football Federation (FFU) said on Thursday.
“The sanctions are not removed while the FIFA is considering an appeal by the FFU against the charges,” Xinhua reported quoting Hryhory Surkis, honorary president of the FFU, as saying.
The FIFA decision means the fans would be allowed to watch the next Ukraine’s home World Cup qualifier against Poland on Oct 11 at the Metallist stadium in Kharkov city of the country’s east, Surkis said.
He added that the Lvov-Arena stadium ban still remains in force.
Ukraine was punished by FIFA following racist behaviour of its fans in the match against San Marino on September 6 in Lvov city.
On September 27, FIFA banned the blue-yellow squad from staging World Cup qualifiers at its Lvov-Arena stadium until 2018 and ordered its next home match had to be played behind closed doors.
Ukraine’s Football Federation on Thursday filed an appeal before the FIFA disciplinary committee with a request to lift the sanctions.
