Both Serbia and England to be charged

The scenes following the England Under-21 team's win over Serbia on Tuesday were disgraceful. As England's players naturally celebrated their late winner with some exubernace, there was nothing that could possibly excuse the Serbian players and support team from running over and trying to disrupt those celebrations.

It seems there was some racial abuse from the crowd, and it was little wonder that Danny Rose was so angered by everything that was happening round him that he kicked the ball into the crowd. That the referee booked him for that (second bookable, so Rose was sent off) was farcical given what was going on nearby, with Tom Lees being slapped around the head by Serbian players on at least two occasions.

I hear that UEFA is going to charge the Serbian FA with alleged racist chanting by fans and to charge both associations over the behaviour of players at the end of the game. Let's hope that UEFA also investigate and charge Serbia for the missiles that were thrown towards the England players as they celebrated their victory.

We will see what the results of those charges are.

The Serbian FA tried to deny accusations of racist chanting, no doubt fearing a worse fine than the ridiculous £16,000 fine it received for racist chanting by fans in 2007.

Serbia have a track record in this area. It needs to be stopped.

Real Madrid face charges for time-wasting dismissals

Sadly, people in professional football are always trying to stretch the rules to the limit.

So it was on Tuesday night when Real Madrid seemingly contrived to get two players sent off so that they would avoid suspensions in the knock-out stages of the Champions League.

Both Xabi Alonso and Sergio Ramos were booked for a second time and therefore sent off in the latter stages of Madrid's 4-0 win at Ajax. The misdemeanour in each case was a piece of outrageous time-wasting that rightly resulted in a booking - exactly what each player wanted. They will now be suspended for the meaningless match against Auxerre, and their slate will be clean for the first game of the knock-out competition.

UEFA, though, appear to have seen through this ruse, and have charged Real Madrid with improper conduct of manager Jose Mourinho and four players (Alonso, Ramos, goalkeeper Iker Casillas and substitute Jerzey Dudek). The latter two appeared to be part of the conspiracy, passing messages to the two players who were already on a booking each.

Well, good for UEFA. It will be interesting to see what punishment they mete out. Perhaps suspensions for two games in the knock-out stages?

The game's integrity is fundamental

It's probably the thing you want above all else. You want to believe that it's all real; that it's totally honest and not open to corruption.

If you cannot trust the integrity of football, then waht's the point?

So the match-fixing story under investigation in Germany comes as a horror to all football fans.

Yesterday UEFA named nine countries under investigations: Austria, Belgium, Bosnia, Croatia, Germany, Hungary, Slovenia, Switzerland and Turkey. The cases involve more than 200 matches, and UEFA is also investigating Champions League and Europa League matches from the start of this season.

UEFA general secretary Gianni Infantino said: "We want all our associations, all 53, to be at the same level when it comes to fighting this cancer we need to eradicate." He added that UEFA was investigating activities of three referees and one of its own officials.

UEFA promised strong action against anyone - player, referee, club - implicated. Infantino said: "He will be out of football - this is very clear."

Let us hope any culprits are found and dealt with severely.

We must have trust in the integrity of the game.