June 09, 2007	Saturday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 23, 1428

COPENHAGEN, June 8: UEFA have handed Sweden a 3-0 win in their abandoned Euro 2008 qualifier with Denmark, European soccer's governing body said on Friday.

UEFA also fined the Danish Football Association (DBU) 100,000 Swiss Francs ($81,630) and ordered them to play their next four home Euro 2008 qualifiers at least 250 km (155 miles) from Copenhagen.

The first of those games, against Liechtenstein on Sept 12, will have to be played behind closed doors.

Denmark had rallied from 3-0 down to 3-3 at home last Saturday but the match was abandoned in the 89th minute when a drunken fan ran onto the pitch and attacked referee Herbert Fandel after the German awarded Sweden a penalty.

Sweden now lead Group F with 18 points from seven matches, with Spain three points behind. Denmark trail in fourth place on 10 points from six matches.

The DBU said it would appeal the decision.

“This is a particularly hard punishment, which reaches beyond what we've seen in earlier disciplinary UEFA cases,” DBU general secretary Jim Stjerne Hansen said on the Danish federation's website.

“Based on my 17 years experience in this business I believe there are good grounds to appeal this decision.”

But Swedish Football Association chairman Lars-Ake Lagrell said the punishment was within the rules.

“When a match is abandoned it's a question of who is in charge,” he said. “That was not us, that was outside of our responsibilities. Denmark lost the result completely according to regulations.”

Dane Christian Poulsen, who prompted the penalty and was sent off for punching Markus Rosenberg, was banned for three competitive internationals, UEFA said.

DBU said it would start a civil lawsuit against the fan who disrupted the match and would issue refunds to those who have already bought tickets to the Liechtenstein game.—Reuters