Turkey punished for brawl

After three months of looking over information related to mayhem that broke out after the Turkey-Switzerland World Cup Qualifying match, the FIFA Disciplinary Committee today handed down the penalties.

The Turkish Football Federation will have to play heir next six official home matches at a neutral ground and behind closed doors. Turkey will be responsible for all costs related to these matches. In addition, they will have to pay a fine of 200,000 Swiss francs ($154,200).

Here is the list of individual penalties:

Alpay Ozalan (Turkey, player) - Six match suspension; fined 15,000 ($11,500) Swiss francs (plus procedural costs)

Emre Belozoglu (Turkey, player) - Six match suspension; fined 15,000 ($11,500) Swiss francs (plus procedural costs)

Serkan Balci (Turkey, player) - Two match suspension; fined 5,000 ($3,850) Swiss francs (plus procedural costs)

Mehmet Ozdilek (Turkey, assistant coach) - Ban from taking part in any football-related activity (administrative, sports or any other activity), within associations, confederations or FIFA for 12 months as from notification of this decision; fined 15,000 ($11,500) Swiss francs (procedural costs)

Benjamin Huggel (Switzerland, player) - Six match suspension; fined 15,000 Swiss francs ($11,500) (plus procedural costs)

Stephan Meyer (Switzerland, physiotherapist) - Two match suspension; fined 6,500 ($5,000) Swiss francs (plus procedural costs)

These penalties seem justified. Thankfully FIFA didn't do anything stupid like ban Turkey from the 2010 World Cup.

A full report is due in 30-days. There is a chance that an appeal committee could overturn these fines.