By Andrew Warshaw, Chief Correspondent
February 19 – Five years after celebrating their independence from Serbia, Kosovan football officials say they have been betrayed after being promised partial acceptance into the world game.
Just before Christmas, as reported by this website, Kosovo were given permission by FIFA to play friendly matches at “youth, amateur, women’s and club football” level. However, no mention was made of the breakaway Balkan state being cleared to play friendly internationals at senior level.
Insideworldfootball is one of a number of media organisations who have now been passed an exchange of correspondance between the Kosova Football Federation (FFK) and FIFA in which the world governing body appears to lay out severe restrictions.
In the first correspondence dated December 18, FIFA general secretary Jerome Valcke tells the FFK that even for youth, amateur, women’s and club football, all flags and national symbols – as well as the national anthem – are banned and that no games can be staged on Kosovar soil “without the prior authorization” of Serbia.
That prompted a furious response from FKK President Fadil Vokrii who, in a letter to FIFA President Sepp Blatter copied to every member of the FIFA executive committee, claimed FIFA had gone back on its word and was out of touch with political reality.
The FFK, said Vokrii, “expresses its total rejection of the unacceptable content” of the modalities imposed by FIFA’s position – especially the highly sensitive requirement that Serbia first had to approve matches.
“This clause is an insult to an independent country recognized by 97 UN member states, i.e. more than 50%of the world community, representing 118 of the 209 FIFA member associations,” Vokrii declared.
“It is an insult to the sufferings and persecution of the Kosovo football community, which struggled during years to continue its existence and persevered to maintain its clubs, leagues and players in the harshest circumstances of segregation and violence.
“It is also the negation of the fact that in some regional meetings and in talks in Brussels under EU auspices, Kosovo is treated as an independent state even in discussions with Serbia on bilateral issues.
“Not only the football-governing bodies are trailing behind the political reality, but such a decision by FIFA seems to submit a football-only issue to some political considerations and governmental interference.”
Accusing FIFA of having “bent” its own statutes in order to appease certain European federations, Vokrii said his federation was “astonished and surprised” and that the FFK would “endlessly continue to defend its rights in front of the stubborn ignorance and the rearguard fight by some football leaders against the ineluctable recognition of Kosovo football in parallel with the growing inclusion of our country in the international community.”
Without any apparent climbdown by FIFA or UEFA, earlier this month Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci penned his own personal protest in a passionate and sensitive three-page appeal to Blatter.
Pointing out that 22 EU member states now recognised his country, he wrote: “The independence of Kosovo is not only irreversible but a fact of life which is only contested by a decreasing number of countries.”
The modalities imposed by FIFA, he added, “effectively call for the negation of our statehood.”