European soccer’s governing body voted Tuesday to formally recognize the Kosovo Football Federation as its 55th member in a vote at its annual congress in Budapest. Serbia, which does not recognize Kosovo, reacted angrily to the decision and said it would work to overturn it.
Opinion piece writer for the paper, Halil Matoshi, says that the British legal official of the UEFA, Alasdair Bell, surprised on Tuesday experts of the international right with his brilliant defense of Kosovo’s right to become member of the UEFA which is preceded by FIFA membership. “After the International Court of Justice’s rejection of Serbia’s question on whether the Governing Provisional Institutions of Kosovo had the right to proclaim independence of Kosovo, this was the most brilliant defense of Kosovo in the international arena,” writes Matoshi.
It has once again become evident that some precedents apply to Serbia, Serbian government Minister Aleksandar Vulin said after Kosovo was admitted to UEFA on Tuesday, adding that he expects the UN Security Council to say whether its Resolution 1244 on Kosovo is still valid.
The consequences of Kosovo joining European football's governing body will be unforeseeable and it is only a matter of time before someone else invokes the precedent and UEFA's violation of its own statute, he told Tanjug.
Position of the German government when it comes to relations between Belgrade and Pristina is based on the negotiation framework, which does not require recognition of Kosovo’s independence, reads the answer of the German Government lead by Angela Merkel on 31 questions on Serbia, forwarded to it by a group of the MPs of German Left Party, to which Deutsche Welle had an insight.
Kosovo's admission to European football's governing body UEFA is evidently a political decision and a result of major political pressure.
Foreign Minister in the outgoing Serbian government Ivica Dacic said this on Tuesday.
He also reiterated that Serbia "will never recognize Kosovo" - its southern province where ethnic Albanians in 2008 unilaterally declared independence.
Situation of Serbian media in Kosovo is worsening every next year, along with the economic uncertainty, various pressures, attacks on journalists and overspread censorship and auto-censorship, says chairperson of the Association of Serbian Journalists in Kosovo, Budimir Ničić.
The front-page editorial of the paper notes that arrests of Kosovo Albanians based on arrest warrants issued by Serbian authorities, remain a challenge in the relations between the two countries. “Even Kosovo senior officials and well-known politicians became victims of these decisions; however, due to the sensitivity of the cases, they were released after the mediation of the internationals. However, when ordinary citizens, who do not carry senior positions, are concerned, their suffering is limitless.
“Erdogan’s statement is a shot at empty space” said Politika’s source from the diplomatic circles while commenting a critic of a Turkish President addressed to Islamic states that didn’t recognize Kosovo.
The Prime Minister of Kosovo, said that he is very happy and proud that Kosovo managed to become an UEFA member. Mustafa, who happens to be in Budapest as well, said that Kosovo football will soon become FIFA member. Below find Mustafa’s complete statement:
“Dear friends,
I feel happy and proud that our state just reached a culminant, historical success.
The Union of the European Football Associations (UEFA) Congress voted regarding the acceptance of Kosovo as a new member of the European Football Federation. Kosovo has become member of the UEFA with 28 votes on its favor.