Ante Cacic has branded Croatia supporters who threw flares onto the pitch in Friday’s 2-2 draw with the Czech Republic at Euro 2016 as “sports terrorists” with Uefa set to investigate the crowd trouble.
With Croatia 2-1 up, referee Mark Clattenberg briefly halted play when flares thrown from the Croatian fan block landed on the pitch in Saint-Etienne, minutes before the 90 minutes was up.
When the match resumed, Croatia defender Domagoj Vida was penalised for handball and Tomas Necid drilled home the 94th-minute penalty to claim their first point in Group D.
European football’s governing body Uefa has already said they will launch an investigation.
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“These people are sports terrorists, they are not fans,” fumed Croatia’s coach Cacic.
“95 per cent of our supporters are ashamed in front of Europe, the players are very sad that after playing a beautiful match this happens.”
Croatia were stripped of one point in qualifying, forced to play two home matches behind closed doors and fined €100,000 (Dh414,000) by Uefa after a swastika was painted on the field before a match against Italy in June 2015 in Split.
A member of the ground staff at the Stade Geoffrey Guichard appeared to have been hit by a flare.
“I have called it ‘terrorism’ in the past, people weren’t happy with my comments, but now this has happened again,” added Cacic.
“These people are ruining everything we are doing, they probably have some support from somewhere.
“You saw there were loads of Croatia supporters who were really correct and fair, they were dancing with Turkish and Czech fans here in France.
“We are talking about a small group of fans, I hope we can identify and find them.
“These people are really scary, these are terrorists, they are not fans.”
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