European football's governing body will wait until Sunday before announcing a decision on the disgraceful scenes involving Portugal's players during their Euro 2000 semi-final against France.

UEFA officials have already held a disciplinary committee meeting and a spokesperson said: 'A decision will be taken on Sunday morning after Saturday's UEFA Congress.'

The Portuguese were incensed at the extra-time penalty awarded against them by Slovakian linesman Igor Sramka and their protests held up play for five minutes. Zinedine Zidane eventually took the penalty that earned France a place in Sunday's final.

That brought the match to a halt but fourth official Hugh Dallas, of Scotland, had to protect the linesman from further protests.

Nuno Gomes was given a red card after the game for pushing the official and substitute Paulo Bento appeared to spit in his direction.

UEFA could impose as much as an eight-match ban on 23-year-old Benfica striker Gomes, ruling him out of the 2002 World Cup qualifiers.

UEFA will also wait for the reports of referee Gunter Benko, of Austria, and Dallas before punishing any other players.

That may include Everton's Abel Xavier, who was adjudged to have handled the low shot from Sylvain Wiltord that led to the penalty.

Xavier said: 'We lost the game in a way we didn't expect. But France are a big country and we are only small. As for the penalty, the ball was fast and I was going in to make a tackle. It is impossible to have straight arms when you are going down on to the floor. Then the ball hit me.'