Red Star Belgrade fans at Tottenham game despite racism ban

LONDON (AP) — Red Star Belgrade coach Vladan Milojevic thanked the club’s fans for finding a way to circumvent a ban from attending the Champions League match at Tottenham as part of a sanction for racist chanting from UEFA.

Hundreds of Red Star fans found a way to get tickets to seat in a home section behind one of the goals at the north London stadium and were singing from early in the game.

Stadium security and police eventually surrounded the fans but they stayed throughout their team’s 5-0 loss on Tuesday but officials determined the group was too large to eject.

Tottenham will investigate how the tickets were obtained and planned to take action against fans found to have sold them to Red Star fans.

Milojevic said he was “not surprised” to hear from Red Star fans in the Group B game.

“There are many of our fans, some of them live in this country, in London, or maybe surrounding countries and for them Red Star is a very important club,” Milojevic said. “It’s a love that they feel for the club, I can’t describe this with words, this sort of love.

“People came, I’m sure they weren’t organized as a group. Just like at Liverpool (in October 2018), we had a ban. There were very few fans tonight but we could hear them. Again, I thank them for their support.”

But it could lead to a new disciplinary case from UEFA, which declined comment.