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The Kosovo Volleyball Federation asked the European Volleyball Confederation (CEV) to verify Serbia's claims that nine players had a fever and, therefore, the youth national team did not play the match against Kosovo. Bahri Gjinovci, the president of the Kosovo Volleyball Federation, said this for Radio Free Europe.
Serbia's under-18 men's volleyball team did not play a match against Kosovo on January 21 in Strumica, North Macedonia, as part of the qualifiers for the European Championship 2024. The match was recorded with an official score of 3:0 in favor of Kosovo and the Serbian cadets finished the competition in sixth place - which eliminated them from the rest of the qualifying round. The official explanation was that nine players had a fever and this prevented them from taking the field.
" This could happen, but we do not believe this reasoning. We asked the European Volleyball Confederation to confirm whether the medical reports were submitted, that this was really the case or that they did not want to play against Kosovo ", said Gjinovci.
Serbia does not recognize Kosovo as a state. Under the mediation of the European Union, the two countries are in negotiations for the normalization of relations, which should result in a legally binding agreement. The Kosovo Volleyball Federation said on January 22 that it would be more happy with the success achieved on the field than the result obtained "on the table".
" Sports must create bridges of union, and Serbia, in this case, has proven through actions of this nature that it still does not have this will and readiness ", it was said in her statement.
The Volleyball Federation of Serbia told Radio Free Europe that the match was not played because nine players had a high temperature. According to the doctor, who is determined by the host country, the delegates also had to confirm the health status of the players. The Serbian Federation did not comment on Pristina's claims that the decision not to play the match with Kosovo could be political.
" After finishing in sixth place, the national team of Serbia did not pass the next qualifying round ," the European Volleyball Confederation told Radio Free Europe.
Unlike Serbia, Kosovo passed to the next stage of the European Championship 2024 qualifiers. In the qualifying tournament in Strumica, Serbia had to fight for fifth place with Kosovo. Nikola Jankovic, the journalist of the Sport Club in Serbia, told Radio Free Europe that Serbian cadets "have been excluded from the entire qualifying cycle for their age."
" The boys lost the chance to compete in the next European Championship and given that it is a qualifier for the World Championship, they lost the chance to compete in the World Championship as well ," said Jankovic.
" Serbian cadets will have their next chance to compete when they are two or three years older ," he added.
The European Volleyball Confederation and the Balkan Volleyball Association did not respond to REL's questions about whether they have received Kosovo's request and whether they will investigate Serbia's claims about the sick players. In the past years, in some cases, the politics between Kosovo and Serbia was decisive in the sports competitions of their teams. Two players and a coach originally from Serbia did not participate in the Europa League match between the Slovak club, Slovan Bratislava, and the Kosovar football club, Ferronikeli, in July 2019.
At that time, they said that it was their personal decision and that no one from Serbia had called them. The Montenegro-Kosovo match, as part of the qualifiers for the European Championship, took place in June 2019 without the Montenegrin national team coach, Lubisha Tumbakovic, and two players born in Serbia, who also play for the Srvena Zvezda team in Belgrade.
They refused to play against the Kosovo national team, which the public found out a few hours before the start of the match. In March 2018, Belgrade canceled the scheduled match between the women's handball teams of Serbia and Kosovo. As a reason, Serbian authorities cited the risk of possible conflicts between Serbian fans and the police.
In advance, the right-wing released a video showing Serbian fans singing nationalist songs in the village of Kovillovo, not far from Belgrade, where the match was to be played. After this incident, the European Handball Federation suspended Serbia's handball players from qualifying for the World Championship, the organization announced.
In some cases, Kosovar athletes were not even allowed to enter the territory of Serbia. One such case occurred in October 2021, when Kosovo boxers could not participate in the World Championship in Belgrade.
At that time, the Serbian authorities did not allow the 3-member team from Kosovo to enter Serbia, telling them that Serbia does not recognize Kosovo as a state and, therefore, neither the state symbols of Kosovo.
In May 2018, the Kosovo karate team, on two occasions, tried to cross the border with Serbia to participate in the European Karate Championship in Novi Sad. The contestants from Kosovo then left for Serbia in clothing that did not have state symbols.
But the Serbian athletes also returned from the border of Kosovo. In October 2019, the footballers of Sërvena Zvezda returned from the border point of Jarinje, in the north of Kosovo. They were on their way to Zveçan, in the north of Kosovo, where the match against the club Trepça from North Mitrovica would be played for the Serbian Cup. At that time, the Kosovo police said that they received an order not to allow their entry into Kosovo.
The general secretary of the Football Federation of Kosovo, Eroll Salihu, said at that time to Radio Free Europe that the development of the official match of Serbian clubs in the territory of Kosovo is a pure provocation and a violation of the statute of the European and World Football Federation ( UEFA and FIFA). Also, the basketball players of Partizan of Serbia were not allowed to enter Kosovo in December 2018. As officials of this club reported at the time, the police told them that they should ask for permission to enter Kosovo./REL
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