Belgrade, March 22 (Reuters) - Three Red Star Belgrade players
were slightly injured when dozens of the club's angry fans attacked the
team with bats and clubs at a training session on Friday, Belgrade's Beta
news agency reported.
It said Milenko Acimovic, Branko Boskovic and Mihajlo Pjanovic had
to be taken to hospital for treatment after the fans broke into the training
ground and attacked players with baseball bats and wooden clubs.
The club's managing board convened immediately after the incident and
released a statement asking the soccer authorities to postpone their
league match with OFK Belgrade on Saturday.
``This outrageous incident has completely disrupted our preparations for
the match and we want it postponed also because our players and coach
are in a state of utter shock,'' the statement said.
``We are convinced that the recent poor results are not and cannot be
the reason for this vandalistic attack and we will do everything to make
sure it never happens again. We will protect our players and the club's
reputation,'' it added.
Champions Red Star are second in the 18-team Yugoslav first division,
nine points behind bitter local rivals Partizan with a slim chance of
retaining the title after a series of indifferent performances in recent
weeks.
Belgrade's B 92 radio said several fans had interrupted the team's news
conference shortly before the training session and told players that they
were ``a disgrace to the club's colours.''
It quoted one of the fans as saying that they would ``no longer tolerate
lack of commitment on the pitch.''
The radio station added that the fans smashed the windshields of several
cars belonging to the players before invading the training ground.
