The Kosovo Football Association has complained to the international football association Fifa about the banner seen in the Serbian dressing room during Thursday’s Brazil match.
The events of the World Cup soccer match between Brazil and Serbia, played on Thursday night, have stirred emotions in Kosovo. The banner hanging in the Serbian booth had a map of Kosovo colored in the colors of the Serbian flag. The text was “no Surrender (Nema Predaje)”, i.e. “no surrender”.
Later, the banner was also seen in the stands with fans.
The Federation of Kosovo is outraged by what happened, and in the bulletin (you will switch to another service) concrete actions against Serbia are demanded from Fifa.
– There is no place for chauvinistic and nationalistic actions like I saw in sports events, especially when it is the world’s biggest football event. The Federation of Kosovo, as a full member of Fifa, demands punitive measures against Serbia, because such actions incite hatred between people and are also against human dignity.
According to the Balkan Insight website (you will be transferred to another service) the background of the banner is a dispute in which the Kosovo administration has pressured Serbs in the northern part of the country to change their cars’ Serbian license plates to Kosovar ones.
Also the Minister of Sports of Kosovo Hajrulla Ceku also took a stand on the case on his Twitter account.
– Shameful pictures of Serbia’s dressing room. They show xenophobia and point to genocide, Ceku wrote.
– We expect concrete actions from Fifa, because we are a full member of Fifa and UEFA.
It is not the first time that the situation of Kosovars has come to the fore during the World Cup. In 2018, Swiss people in Russia Xherdan Shaqiri and Granit Xhaka were fined 10,000 Swiss francs when they fanned the goal against Serbia by demonstrating the eagle and its wings found on the Albanian flag.
The two are of Kosovar Albanian background. Serbia and Switzerland will meet again in the opening group stage of the Games.