Portuguese Wild Party
UEFA probes trashing of Portugal under-21 dressing room
PARIS, Nov 19 (Reuters) - UEFA will investigate incidents at Tuesday's European under-21 championship playoff between France and Portugal after the Portuguese dressing room at Clermont-Ferrand was trashed.
Portugal won in a penalty shoot-out after their 2-1 victory over 10-man France in the second leg left the two sides tied 3-3 on aggregate.
L'Equipe newspaper reported on Wednesday that France under-21 manager Raymond Domenech had complained to the Portugal delegation about the damage to the dressing room.
"It's a disgrace," Domenech was quoted as saying.
A French federation spokesman said: "To leave a dressing room in such a state can only be done deliberately or they were out of their minds. If it was done deliberately, then that's serious."
European soccer's governing body said in a statement on Wednesday: "UEFA has ordered an investigation into incidents that took place on the bench and in the dressing room."
The French federation spokesman said that while passions ran high during the game, he had heard of no incidents involving players either on the bench or in the tunnel.
The Portuguese delegation also refused to take part in doping controls that French officials conducted at the game.
The game fell under UEFA jurisdiction and the French federation spokesman said the Portuguese were within their rights to refuse to take part in national doping controls.
UEFA has also launched a disciplinary inquiry after crowd trouble marred Tuesday's under-21 qualifier between Turkey and Germany in Istanbul.
Updated on Wednesday, Nov 19, 2003 11:02 am EST
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