Roma and CSKA Moscow face Uefa sanctions following crowd trouble

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/sep/18/manchester-city-roma-cska-moscow-crowd-trouble

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Roma and CSKA Moscow should discover on Thursday afternoon if Uefa will open disciplinary procedures against either club following the crowd trouble at their Champions League group game.

Any action taken could impact on Manchester City as Roma and CSKA are their next two opponents in Group E. City play the Italian club first, at the Etihad Stadium on 30 September, before travelling to Moscow on 21 October.

Although Uefa would not be drawn what conditions may be imposed, if the governing body decide Roma have a case to answer, extra security conditions and restrictions on fans travelling to Manchester for the second Group E match are potential sanctions.

Last season Uefa ordered CSKA to close a section of its stadium as a punishment for their fans racial abuse of Yaya Touré during City’s 2-1 defeat in group match in Moscow last October.

Uefa expects to receive the report regarding the incident in Rome from its officials on Thursday and then decide if there is a case. After 70 minutes of Wednesday evening’s game at the Stadio Olimpico CSKA fans let off flares and threw them at their rival section.

These were subsequently returned by Roma fans, and the Russian supporters then tried to attack them and fought with stewards and riot police.

Outside the ground further violence ensued with it being reported that at least two CSKA supporters were hospitalised.

City lost 1-0 to Bayern Munich in their opening group game in Bavaria and despite around 1,300 of their fans travelling to the Allianz Arena the club had to return approximately 2,000 more tickets.

It is understood that as the match was City’s third meeting in four seasons with the German club many fans decided there was a lack of attraction in making the trip.

Touré is also facing criticism from some fans after following a disappointing performance against Bayern by joking with and embracing Pep Guardiola, the head coach, who the Ivorian played for at Barcelona.

Some supporters took to social media, including twitter, to voice their disquiet.