, Stoke City winger could face punishment for World Cup celebrations

Stoke City winger could face punishment for World Cup celebrations

Stoke City’s Xherdan Shaqiri could face punishment from FIFA due to the way he celebrated his winner against Serbia in the World Cup according to a report from the Independent.

With the game looking like it was going to be a draw, Shaqiri was able to burst past the Serbian defence and finished past the goalkeeper to give Switzerland the win and the advantage going into the last fixture of the group. But some Serbians may have been more angered by how Shaqiri celebrated the goal than the fact he scored it.

Following the goal, Shaqiri made a gesture with his hands which appeared to look like the eagle on Albania’s flag. While the winger plays for the Swiss national side, he is actually of Albanian-Kosovan descent. There has been longstanding tensions in that region which go back decades but went up in 2008 after Kosovo declared independence, something the nation of Serbia does not recognise.

And Shaqiri could end up facing punishment from FIFA should they deem it as a political celebration. Both Shaqiri and his manager Vladimir Petkovic denied that they were that saying it was down to emotion but Serbia did make it clear that they would be writing a letter of complaint to FIFA today about the incident. Shaqiri however will not be the only one getting punished. His team-mate and Arsenal player Granit Xhaka, who is of the same descent as Shaqiri, celebrated in a similar manner when his thunderbolt shot levelled the game earlier on.

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