By Paul Giblin
MOSCOW, June 24 (Xinhua) -- The Serbian Football Federation on Sunday confirmed that they have appealed to FIFA against the officiating of referee Felix Brych during their 2-1 defeat to Switzerland on Friday night.
The Serbs are angry at the performance of German referee Felix Brych, who they consider prejudiced their team with his decisions showing the Serbs four yellow cards to just one for the Swiss and turning down what looked to be a valid penalty appeal.
"We have submitted seven video recordings clearly showing Brych's tendency to make decisions against our national team. The footage reveals Brych's double standards in brandishing yellow cards, as he was quick to book our key players while he didn't do the same in similar situations at the other end," said the Serbian Football Federation in a communique.
"The most glaring poor decision was not awarding Serbia a penalty for a foul on Aleksandar Mitrovic with the score 1-1 and awarding the spot kick could have turned the match our way," the communique continues.
The Serbs were especially angry Byrch didn't use the VAR system to clarify the incident after Mitrovic appeared to be wrestled to the ground by two defenders.
"The whole world saw the penalty except Brych and it should have gone to VAR analysis. We are wondering why Serbia is the only team in the World Cup where the match official chose to ignore controversial situations at it raises the legitimate question whether the VAR is being used selectively," they conclude.
The only yellow card for the Swiss was after striker Xherdan Shaqiri took his shirt off after scoring the winning goal.
FIFA have announced that both Shaqiri and the other Swiss goalscorer Granit Xhaka face disciplinary action after celebrating their goals with a hand-gesture in which they put their hands together to form a double-headed eagle, representative of the one on the Albanian flag.
This is a nationalist symbol linked to Kosovo and Albania and risks creating political tension with the Serbs, who do not recognise Kosovo's independence.
