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Marko Arnautovic will miss Austria’s decisive game against the Netherlands on June 17 after his lively celebration after his goal against North Macedonia on Sunday.
UEFA issued a statement on Wednesday finding Arnautovic guilty of insulting an unspecified North Macedonian player and upholding his sentence.
“The UEFA Appeals Body has decided to suspend Austrian Football Association player Marko Arnautovic for the next (1) competitive UEFA representative team match to which he would otherwise be eligible, for insulting another player, “the statement read.
The Macedonian Football Federation had appealed to UEFA to punish the 32-year-old striker for his outburst, which was described as a racial insult, especially of an anti-Albanian nature.
The explosion was directed against Egzon Bejtulai, a North Macedonian player of Albanian descent, Arnautovic then allegedly told another North Macedonian player of Albanian descent, Ezgjan Alioski: “I’m going to fuck your Albanian mother.”
Alioski was born in North Macedonia to Albanian parents and when he was young he moved to Switzerland, where around 250,000 ethnic Albanians currently reside, making him the second largest ethnic group in Switzerland. The exchange between Arnautovic and Alioski was therefore in German.
Arnautovic was reprimanded by Austrian captain David Alaba on the pitch for his conduct.
‘I am not racist’
Arnautovic escaped a 10-game suspension, which would accompany the use of racist language.
Arnautovic was also reportedly angered at being a replacement and apologized on social media for his conduct and the “passionate words” used, but rejected any suggestion he was racist.
“I would like to say one thing very clearly. I AM NOT A RACIST! I have friends in almost every country and I stand up for diversity. Anyone who knows me knows that.”
Serbia, the birthplace of Arnautovic’s father, has historic tensions with Albania and North Macedonia and feuds between players from those nations are not new.
At the 2018 World Cup, Granit Xhaka and Xherdan Shaqiri, Swiss players of Albanian origin, were fined for their “Albanian Eagle” celebration for Serbian fans after Switzerland’s match against Serbia.
Arnautovic will be free to return for Austria’s final group game against Ukraine on June 21.
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