Percorso:ANSA > Nuova Europa > Kosovo > Kosovo: football, Red Star match banned, in Serbian enclave

Kosovo: football, Red Star match banned, in Serbian enclave

'It's a pretext to spread anti-Kosovar propaganda'

07 May, 16:03
(ANSA) - BELGRADE, MAY 7 - The Football Federation of Kosovo has blocked Red Star Belgrade from playing a humanitarian match in Gracanica, a Serbian enclave not far from Pristina, the capital city. The president of the Federation of Football Federation Fadilj Vokri said, cited by the media in Belgrade, that the ban was imposed to prevent the football meeting from becoming an opportunity to spread anti-Kosovar political and racist propaganda on the Serbian side. ''We have previously allowed such matches, but we did not this time, since on the last occasion some things were recorded that have nothing to do with sport'', Vokri said, adding that he informed UEFA about the ban. Among other things, he underlined, in the latest match the nationalist slogan ''Kosovo is the heart of Serbia'' was repeated numerous times, and football fans sang the national anthem of Serbia. The Red Star match with the local Gracanica team was scheduled for May 9th, in order to support a pediatric clinic. Serbia does not recognise the independence proclaimed ten years ago by Kosovo, which Belgrade continues to consider its own southern province with an Albanian ethnic majority. (ANSA).

© Copyright ANSA - All rights reserved