Football: U-21 game switched

UEFA YESTERDAY decided England's Under-21 European Championship play-off tie with Yugoslavia will be a one-legged affair in a neutral country because of fears over security. The match is scheduled to be played in Luxembourg's National Stadium on Sunday, 14 November, the venue for last year's European Championship game between that country and the full England side.

The prospect of a compromise has looked likely ever since the draw was made, because of political unrest in Yugoslavia and the Balkans crisis. Already this season, the away leg of Leeds United's Uefa Cup encounter with Partizan Belgrade was switched to the Netherlands in September. And with the Foreign Office still recommending that British citizens do not travel to Yugoslavia, a similar scenario was agreed by the emergency committee of football's European governing body in Stockholm.

The move was welcomed by the Football Association's executive director, David Davies, who said: "This is the right compromise after a lot of very hard work on all sides."

An FA delegation will fly out to Luxembourg today to meet representatives of Uefa and the Yugoslav football federation to finalise arrangements for the game.