Vida, who scored Croatia’s second goal against Russia on Saturday, has been issued a warning over the video by FIFA, Interfax reported Sunday.
Meanwhile, Vukojevic was relieved of his duties as a member of the Croatian national team by the country’s football federation on Monday. He was also given a $15,000-fine from FIFA’s disciplinary committee for “unsportsmanlike behavior.”
The two members of the Croatian delegation, who both played for Ukraine’s Dynamo Kiev football club in the past, have since apologized and said they had not intended for their words to be interpreted in a political context.
“It was definitely not a political message, but a simple thank you for all the support from Ukraine,” Vida was cited as saying in a statement published on the website of Croatia’s football federation.
The federation also apologized “to the Russian public” over the incident and noted its “long-term friendly relationship” with its Russian counterpart.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s Football Federation issued a letter to FIFA on Monday in support of Vida. It also offered to pay the footballer’s fine.
“The ‘glory to Ukraine’ slogan is a greeting, a celebration of the fallen and a patriotic symbol of the independence, liberty and freedom-loving nature of the Ukrainian people,” the statement said.
“[It] is a commonly used greeting in Ukraine …[and] is not a discriminatory or far-right sign or symbol that can be negatively interpreted,” the federation added.
Since the incident, social media users have leftover 158,000 comments on FIFA’s Facebook page, many of which repeated the Ukrainian slogan, in protest of the punishment.
