Austria star punished by UEFA for insulting Albanians

Marko Arnautović is the player with the most appearances and the most goals for the Austrian national team. The 36-year-old has 130 matches and 47 goals for Austria, where he continues to be one of the main players.

Arnautović has a Serbian father and currently plays for Red Star Belgrade. And he has an anti-Albanian stance.

He was punished by UEFA in 2021 for insulting Albanians. He was sentenced to a one-match suspension.

This is about an incident that occurred at Euro 2020, held in 2021 due to the coronavirus.

In the first match of the group stage, Austria won 3:1 against North Macedonia.

In the 89th minute, Arnautović scored for Austria. He made it 3:1.

After the goal, Arnautivic clashed with two of the Macedonian Albanians, Ezgjan Alioski and Egzon Bejtullai. Defender Bejtullai now plays for Drita and spoke about the incident on Friday.

"Alioski was more involved, but I was there too. He came to an incident and he was seen cursing the Albanian mother. He did the cursing in Serbian. For this he was punished by UEFA," said Bejtullai.

He has shown that they are not indebted to the provocateur of Serbian origin, who throughout his career wanted to be known as a "tough guy." Even the Albanians who were on the field insulted him.

Bejtullai, 32, has played 27 games for North Macedonia. His appearance at the European Championship is one of the highlights of his career.

After the incident, Arnautović apologized.

"There were some hateful words in the emotions of the match, for which I want to apologize, especially to my friends from North Macedonia and Albania," Arnautović wrote. He wrote that he is not a racist.

However, Bejtullai and other North Macedonian Albanians who were at Euro 2020 know Arnautović's true face.

He is expected to be part of Austria in the fall in the two matches against Kosovo, which belong to the new edition of the Nations League.

Bejtullai estimates that Kosovo has good chances in Group B3, where Israel and Ireland are also. He even says that Kosovo has great chances of success in the matches with Austria.

The focus of the "Dardans" continues to be on the March 26 match against Slovakia, which belongs to the semi-finals of the World Cup qualification playoff.

"I think Kosovo has very good chances against Slovakia. I even consider them the favorites. In past matches, Kosovo has shown a really high level," said Bejtullai.