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Football

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FA are set to complain as it flares up in Ukraine

Simon Johnson
12.10.09

The Football Association will today complain to FIFA over the crowd disturbances which marred their 1-0 defeat against Ukraine.

Warnings were given in the Dnipro Arena that the match might have to be abandoned after dozens of flares were thrown on to the pitch from the stands.

England's defeat in Dnipropetrovsk was held up three times as objects were cleared from around the visitors' goal by firemen.

The venue is not on the list of potential stadiums in line to host matches at Euro 2012 but UEFA are bound to be concerned, particularly as they are still to decide just how much of the tournament they will co-host with Poland following widely expressed concerns over infrastructure in both countries.

Fabio Capello, though, insisted that he was not overly worried, even though goalkeepers Robert Green and David James had to take evasive action to avoid being hit, and never considered pulling his players off the pitch.

And the Italian refused to use it as an excuse for the red card that Green collected just 15 minutes into the game.

"No," said Capello, when asked whether he was going to take the players off.

"It is not good when you start the game, then it is suspended and then you have to start everything again. FIFA have to do something about it.

"But it is not an excuse for the penalty or the defeat."

The FA are unhappy, though, believing it to be "unacceptable" their players should come under attack in this way.

"We will be submitting a report with regard to the missiles," said FA director of communications Adrian Bevington.

"We will be following that up with a formal complaint.

"It is not acceptable for any player from any team to come under attack from sustained missile throwing and we will be forwarding that in our report to FIFA in the next week."

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