FA suspends ticket sales for Slovakia qualifier

Fears that England will have to play their next Euro 2004 qualifier behind closed doors yesterday forced the Football Association to delay the sale of tickets for the match against Slovakia on 11 June.

The FA know there is a strong possibility that the sport's European governing body, Uefa, will order the game to be played in an empty Riverside Stadium in Middlesbrough as a punishment for the racist abuse and pitch invasions that marred the victory over Turkey.

Uefa's disciplinary panel will make a ruling on 1 May but as the panel have taken a tough line against racist chanting already this season, the best the FA can hope for is a suspended sentence. Tickets for the match against Serbia and Montenegro on 3 June 2003 will go on sale as previously announced.

Although there has been no official explanation for the delay, sources within the organisation have confirmed the FA do not want to sell tickets now when there is a chance they may be ordered to play the game in an empty stadium. They will not now go on sale until after the hearing.

The disciplinary proceedings follow an official complaint from the Turkish FA. Their English counterparts have until 21 April to submit their response.

Slovakia have already been forced to play a game in an empty stadium as punishment for their supporters racially abusing England players last October. Uefa's communications director, Mike Lee, said last week that it was by no means automatic that England would receive the same punishment as Slovakia. He said: "I cannot make any predictions about this current case but we do believe there is a serious case to answer."

Wales's Euro 2004 qualifying campaign has been thrown into turmoil after Fifa announced that the Azerbaijan federation have been suspended.

The game's world governing body have suspended the Association of Football Federations of Azerbaijan following repeated violations of their code of conduct. Football in the country has been in chaos because of a row between league clubs and the AFFA.

The domestic championship was abandoned as a result and the leading clubs have prevented their players from playing for the national team. The Fifa ruling threatens to stop Azerbaijan from playing international matches, including Euro 2004 qualifying games.

Wales have played Azerbaijan twice, winning 2-0 away and 4-0 in Cardiff. But if Azerbaijan are thrown out and their results expunged that could see Wales lose six points and a plus-six goal difference.

Azerbaijan's next qualifier is the return against Serbia, scheduled for 11 June at a venue to be decided, but a spokesman for Uefa, the governing body of the game in Europe, said it was too early to speculate about whether the game would go ahead.

Georgia will have to play a match behind closed doors as a result of a knife being thrown on to the pitch during the Republic of Ireland's visit to Tbilisi. Uefa ordered the punishment after crowd trouble which saw missiles hurled from the stands and the Irish midfielder, Kevin Kilbane, hit by an open pen-knife.

The penalty will apply to Georgia's Euro 2004 qualifier against Russia on 30 April, although the GFF have until midnight on Friday to appeal.