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Croatia must play qualifiers behind closed doors

By Brian Homewood REUTERS - Croatia must play two home World Cup qualifiers behind closed doors, Chile have been given a stadium ban and five Latin American teams have been fined for discriminatory behaviour by their supporters, FIFA said on Friday. Croatia, whose fans are repeat offenders, will face Turkey and Iceland at home without any supporters after incidents at friendlies against Israel and Hungary in March. They were also fined 150,000 Swiss francs ($151,000) due to "discriminatory chants" by fans during the matches. Croatia have been in trouble before. They were deducted one point during the Euro 2016 qualifying competition over a bizarre racist incident during the 1-1 home draw with Italy in June last year. Fans used a chemical agent to imprint a swastika on the pitch days before the fixture in Split's Poljud stadium and it became visible during the match, which was itself played behind closed doors because of a previous racism offence. Croatia still managed to qualify for this year's European Championship in France. Chile were banned for hosting their next two World Cup qualifiers at Santiago's National Stadium following "homophobic chanting", although the second suspension will only be implemented if there is a repeat incident in the next two years. Also fined 30,000 Swiss francs, Chile will have to look for a new venue for their match against Bolivia. "The proceedings relate to homophobic chants by the team’s fans and follow previous sanctions for similar incidents during the preliminary competition of the 2018 FIFA World Cup," FIFA said. Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador, Paraguay and Peru were fined amounts varying from 15,000 to 40,000 for "various incidents involving discriminatory and unsporting conduct by fans, including homophobic chants in some instances." Homophobic chanting is deeply ingrained in some Latin American countries, especially when the visiting goalkeeper runs up to take a goal kick. Until recently, it was overlooked by soccer authorities. (Editing by Ed Osmond)