Kosovo Football Association Secretary Erol Salihu said on Thursday that he asked the Kosovo police and customs service to prevent the Red Star Belgrade football team from entering Kosovo next week, the KoSSev news portal reported.
The Red Star team are scheduled to play a Serbia Cup game against the Trepca team in North Mitrovica on September 25.
BELGRADE – The Serbian Football Association has submitted an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) against Kosovo being accepted as a member of UEFA.
UEFA member federations voted 28-24 in favor of Kosovo’s application in May, despite strong protests from Serbia against its former province.
European soccer's governing body ruled on June 9 that Kosovo should be kept separate from Serbia and Bosnia for security reasons in competitive matches. UEFA, which admitted Kosovo as a 55th member last month despite strong opposition from Serbia, placed its newest member in a World Cup qualifying group with Ukraine, Croatia, Iceland, Finland, and Turkey.
The Football Association of Serbia (FSS) has filed an appeal with the Lausanne-based Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) over a decision by the European football's governing body UEFA to admit the Football Association of Kosovo as its member despite the fact that it does not meet the requirements set out in the UEFA statute.
President of the Football Association of Serbia (FSS) Slaviša Kokeza said that the FSS will send a letter to the Union of European football associations (UEFA) regarding the decision to allow Kosovo’s clubs to participate in the European cups. “We will send the letter, and in regards to other issues we will consult and do the things which we can. We will fight till the end. I learned that some countries from the region already sent the letters to the UEFA” said Kokeza at a press conference in Stara Pazova.
Following numerous critics and comments after his statement about Kosovo’s membership in FIFA and UEFA, Minister for Local Government Administration in the Kosovo government, Ljubomir Marić, says that it is all about spinning aimed at depicting him as the one who thinks badly about Kosovo.
As of next season, according to the decision at the meeting of the UEFA Executive Committee in Basel, Kosovo football clubs will play in the qualifications for the Champions League and the League of Europe. Kosovo has received two seats, which means that the current football champion in Kosovo, Ferronikeli, will participate in the first qualifying round of the Champions League, while the winner in the Cup will be qualified for the League of Europe.
European football body UEFA is taking additional precautions to ensure Kosovo's recent admission to international football competitions does not cause political problems. UEFA will set up a task force to determine which teams should be kept apart from Kosovo in international competitions to avoid potential trouble, it said on Wednesday.
http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-soccer-uefa-kosovo-idUKKCN0Y91W3
Publisher of Koha Ditore, Flaka Surroi, in an opinion on public perceptions of joyful events in Kosovo, argues that despite the UEFA membership and visa liberalization recommendation, Kosovo still faces many challenges. “It will be a big challenge for Kosovo to come out from the isolation shell where we lived for decades. Infrastructure, which was totally neglected for many years, will be a big challenge and, moreover, the biggest challenge will be to overcome the belief that football in Kosovo is be played only in the muddy fields.”
Lumir Abdixhiku says that intensity of the good news this week resembled the week of the declaration of the independence of Kosovo which proceeded with numerous recognitions. He considers that Kosovo needed this after almost eight year pause, after the fall of the intensity, failure at UNESCO, economic, social, and political suffocation.