Arsenal have cancelled Monday night's friendly against Austrian minnows TSV Hartberg following the violence which marred their match with Rapid Vienna on Saturday.
|  |
Wenger: Forced to cancel
(LaurenceGriffiths/Allsport) |
The Gunners saw their pre-season work-out in Eisenstadt abandoned
after 69 minutes when Rapid fans clashed with police and the players
were forced to take cover.
Local fans fired rockets on to the field and, as police moved in to
stop them, they were pelted with bottles and seats.
Arsene Wenger's side will still take part in Thursday's tournament
in Kapfenberg which includes Roma and Panathinaikos.
The Austrian Bundesliga have admitted they were considering
sanctioning future high-profile friendlies in order to prevent a
recurrence of the shocking scenes.
'The problem is that such friendly games are usually promoted by
private organisations and not by the clubs,' said Bundesliga
spokesman Christian Kircher.
'We have to think about introducing guidelines for such games.'
The Austrian Football Association have moved quickly to isolate the
incident, mindful of the damage it could cause to the joint
Austrian-Swiss Euro 2008 bid.
'In the last year in Austria there were more than 280 games in the
Bundesliga, in the national cup, in the Champions League, in the UEFA
Cup and in the World Cup qualification. There was never a problem
like there was on Saturday,' read an AFA statement.
- NEWS
