Finns In Group F Face Foreign Fans Finally

It’s one thing to fail in living up to your fan’s expectations, and the Finns in Group F of the Euro 2016 qualifiers have certainly managed that, it is quite another to be forced to do so in the disturbing silence of an empty stadium, which is precisely what Finland’s national team would have faced had the Romanian legal eagles at the FRF played the appeals card in quite such the tactically adroit manner they did when their fans got them into hot water.

Finns In Group F

• Romanian FRF fined for fans behavior
• Closed doors opened by UEFA appeal
• Finns face tough road to Euro 2016 finals

Finland have been having a bit of a hard time in Group F of the Euro 2016 qualifiers. Mathematically now the chances of one of the coveted automatic qualification places for the finals in France next year are slim at best, although still technically possible, and with two games left of the group stage it looks like they’re destined to have to face the longer road of play-offs to progress, and there will definitely be some fierce competition amongst those who didn’t make the first cut of the top two teams.

Currently it’s Northern Ireland that sit at the top of the table on 17 points, with Romania close on their heels with 16, then it’s Hungary next with 13 and then the Finns in Group F with just 10 points on the board. This leaves the Faroe Islands on just 6 points and the hapless Greeks with just 3. Thus, barring horrific upset it’ll be the Irish and Romanians going forward to France automatically, and if Finland won’t be pleased, Hungary will be livid.

For the Finns in Group F this has just been another competition at which to beaver away with little success to show for their efforts. However those that like to bet on sports in Finland might not be aware of the significance for two of the other teams involved. Group F drew Hungary and Romania together, which is sort of like England being drawn with Germany. They have a history, and that has had some knock on effects that UEFA is still dealing with.

Crowd Trouble & Imposition Of Fines

The relationship between Hungary and Romania is somewhat fraught, there are age old territorial disputes and a whole bunch of cultural baggage to contend with, and it’s kept quite insular with no one outside the region being able to tell the difference between the two three times out of five, nor accurately place either country on an unmarked map of the world. This is a small private little feud, but one that nearly effected the Finns in Group F.

A football match against Hungary is a flashpoint of sorts for the kind of young men who still think an ardent love of one’s country makes up for having very small genitalia. Romanian fans have thus far managed to get their national football federation fined for booing Hungary’s national anthem, a disgusting display of no respect whatsoever, and for both displaying what UEFA called an “illegal banner” and, naturally, being violent towards opposing Hungarian fans. Their organizers and security also proved their incompetence by getting into pub brawl-style fistfights with home fans, who, in turn, being in the opposite end of the stadium as Hungarians, started fights among each other.

Gambling news coverage after a Hungary-Romania match would be of a hand-holding love-in would be ridiculous, and so despite the trouble being lamentable, it was pretty much par for the course given the relationship between the two nations, and (sadly) boys will be boys. UEFA knew this, that’s why there was only a fine imposed, but then Romania fans apparently decided to have issue with the Greeks as well and that’s when the Finns in Group F were facing a consequence not of their own making.

Finns In Group F Faced Empty Stands

After Romanian fans threw missiles, chanted racist insults and were generally appalling towards the Greeks, UEFA imposed a stadium ban on them meaning the match against Finland was to be played in Bucharest in the eerie and unnaturally quiet atmosphere of a closed stadium. For the Finns in Group F this couldn’t be any more unsettling, and perhaps then they are quite fortunate that some clever legal work from the FRF has seen the ban delayed whilst someone carries out “additional research”.

Working through the UEFA Appeals Commission’s process apparently trumps the rulings of the Board of Control, Ethics and Discipline of UEFA so the ban is suspended for the time being. That may be of some relief to the Finns in Group F who can at least now expect a crowd to play before, however, given recent behavior the FRF may well be wondering if their fans won’t also take issue with the Finns and have an even more onerous punishment dumped upon them.

For those that take advantage of Finnish gambling laws to hit sites like ComeOn! Sportsbook you’ll find there’s a decent enough 1.71 on Romania beating Finland, a rather sad 5.40 on Finland beating Romania and a draw garners just 3.45. Of course the last game for Finland is against table toppers Northern Ireland, which will give them a last gasp of no hope whatsoever, but might well just set them in the right mood to take on the playoffs……..if they get to them at all.