A UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying match involving the national association football teams of Serbia and Albania took place on 14 October 2014 at the Partizan Stadium in Belgrade, Serbia. The match was abandoned after several incidents of hooliganism took place both on and off the field. Serbian fans had chanted "Ubij, ubij Šiptara" (Kill, kill the Albanian), and threw flares and other objects on the pitch. At that point a drone quadcopter carrying an Albanian nationalist banner with an image of Greater Albania appeared on the pitch.
During an interruption of play, Albanian players rushed towards a Serbian player, Stefan Mitrović, who had brought down the banner from the drone attempting to remove it. Conflict arose when Bekim Balaj ran over and took the banner. This triggered a pitch invasion by Serbian fans and security stewards, who proceeded to attack some of the Albanian players, four of whom sustained minor injuries. In addition to attacks by Serbian fans, the Albanian side claimed that their players were also attacked by stewards and riot police. This was denied and a counter-claim of provocation was made by Serbian officials.
On 24 October 2014, UEFA awarded Serbia a 3–0 walkover win against Albania on the grounds that Albania had been at fault for refusing to resume the match. Serbia was, however, given a three-point deduction, and ordered to play its next two homes games behind closed doors. In addition both teams were fined €100,000. The decision was appealed by both Serbia and Albania, but the decision was upheld by UEFA. Both associations then filed further appeals to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, and on 10 July 2015, the Court of Arbitration for Sport rejected the appeal entirely filed by the Football Association of Serbia, but upheld in part the appeal filed by the Albanian Football Association. The CAS ruled that the match abandonment was caused by "security lapses of the organizers and acts of violence exerted on the Albanian players by the Serbian fans and at least one security steward", and therefore reversed the result, awarding a 3–0 victory to Albania. The points deduction to Serbia, fines, and order to play Serbia home games without a crowd were left intact.
The historically rivalrous countries of Serbia and Albania were drawn together on 23 February 2014 in UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying Group I. Although Armenia and Azerbaijan were separated in the qualifier to avoid incidents (due to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict) as well as Gibraltar and Spain (due to the disputed status of Gibraltar), Serbia and Albania were not, with UEFA claiming that it was because neither nation had directly fought a war with each other. The two countries have strong political disagreements regarding Kosovo, which culminated during the Kosovo War. UEFA further defended their decision to keep Albania and Serbia in the same group, claiming that because neither association had requested to be kept separate from each other, nor were there any requests filed after the draw, UEFA did not feel the need to separate the teams.
The game between Serbia and Albania took place at Partizan Stadium in Belgrade, Serbia, on 14 October 2014, as part of UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying Group I. The Football Association of Serbia, Albanian Football Association, and UEFA had all mutually agreed to ban Albanian fans from attending the game for precautionary reasons, unless they did not carry any kind of Albanian paraphernalia.
According to the Albanian Football Association, on the day of the game, the Albanian team bus was hit with stones thrown by Serbian fans, and a chunk of concrete was thrown at them while on the field, as well as "coins, lighters and other objects" which were hurled at players during pre-game warm-ups.
Before the game started, Serbian supporters chanted "Kill the Albanians".
During the game's opening moments, Serbian fans burned a NATO flag. Around 15 minutes into the game, the first flare was thrown on the pitch. Approximately ten minutes later, a Greek flag was raised by the Serbian fans. Ten minutes before half time, flares were thrown towards Ansi Agolli as he was about to take a corner kick, and a firecracker exploded. Several objects were thrown at him, and at the assistant referee. The match was briefly suspended, and Danko Lazović and Aleksandar Kolarov attempted to ease tension as players briefly retreated from stands. After 40 seconds, the match continued, while the stadium announcer asked fans not to throw objects onto the pitch. At around the 40-minute mark, a bottle was thrown at Bekim Balaj, and some Serbian fans tried to invade the pitch, leading to brawls between them and security.
In the 42nd minute of the match, English referee Martin Atkinson suspended the game again due to Serbian fans launching flares onto the pitch. While the game was suspended, a small remote-controlled quadcopter drone suspending a gonfalon hovered over the stadium. This nationalistic banner showed the faces of modern Albania's founding father and prime minister, Ismail Kemal, and the Albanian revolutionary commander Isa Boletini, the word "autochthonous" (in English), 28 November 1912 (the date of the Albanian Declaration of Independence), and a map of Greater Albania (with the territory covered in the Albanian flag). Serbian defender Stefan Mitrović jumped and pulled the flag down, causing Albanian defenders Andi Lila and Taulant Xhaka to run at him in attempt to retrieve it, leading to a brief scuffle between players. Bekim Balaj finally took the flag from Mitrović, and tried to take it off the field, until a Serbian fan ran onto the pitch and struck him across the back of the head with a plastic stool. Albanian captain Lorik Cana quickly took the fan to the ground and began punching him, before the situation escalated into a brawl involving players from both teams, Serbian fans, substitutes, pitch stewards, and staff. Serbian hooligans came onto the pitch and began attacking Albanian players with chairs and other objects, prompting the referee to lead the teams off the field. Albanian players were attacked and hit by thrown objects as they ran into the player tunnel, whereas Serbian players received a standing ovation while they calmly left the pitch. After a 30-minute delay, the game was finally abandoned at 0–0.
Before the Albanian team left the stadium, Serbian police searched the bags of an entire 45-person delegation of supporters from Albania in an attempt to find the remote for the drone, to no avail. Responsibility for the drone was immediately claimed by the Shvercerat, a fan group of the Macedonian club Shkupi, a club operated by Albanians, though no evidence has surfaced to support their claim.
In the following match between the two teams, played in Elbasan on 7 October 2015, the Serbian fans were not allowed to travel to Albania for security reasons. On that same day, Albanian police arrested a man suspected of piloting the drone during the Belgrade match.
Upon arriving at Tirana International Airport, the Albanian team were ebulliently received by a crowd of 5,000 fans. 15,000 people feasted in the early morning hours at the Mother Teresa Square of Tirana. Festivities were also held by Albanian supporters in Pristina, Kosovo, as well as in Skopje, Struga, and Kumanovo. In Tetovo, Albanians who celebrated were fined €200 for being too loud by the local authorities. A few days later, the team was awarded by the cities of Tirana, Vlorë, Kamëz, and Bajram Curri with awards of honour and city recognition for protecting national symbols.
The Serbian side claimed that this was a staged political provocation from the Albanian side, and accused an Albanian VIP attending the match, Olsi Rama (brother of Prime Minister Edi Rama) of piloting the drone, and searched him for the remote. Rama would emphatically reject this accusation. The Serbian Prime Minister's office also stated that Rama was arrested and sent home to Albania, a claim denied by the Albanian government's spokesman. Rama denied any involvement and said that he had been moved from the VIP box for security reasons and informed the authorities that he held American citizenship before being given a police escort to waiting buses. Later, Igli Tare, former Albanian captain and current Lazio sports director, declared that he was with Rama, and that the latter merely carried a camera.