Since 1991 kosovar athletes have not been able to compete on an international level.
The war agains Serbia was the first stopper for the athletes - the war ended in 1999 but since then the kosovar athletes have been trapped in a game of politics.
For 16 years Kosovo has not had a national team in any sport because the country is not recognized as a nation. Athlethes have waited to be let back in to the good company of international events but the political game of solving the problems is still going on and until that game is finished the waiting goes on.
According to sportsjournalist at the Lajm Daily in Kosovo, Driton Latifi, Kosovo is ready to get back on the international scene.
He also believes that it is important for the Kosovo people to get their own identity and national shirt:
-Sport means a lot to us. It also means everything for us to get our own national shirt because it is the patriotic feelings that keep us alive.
A Kosovo national shirt can be close to becoming reality. This summer kosovar athletes took the streets of capital Prishtina to speak up about what they believe to be dicrimination in sport.
A working group has been initiated and has made contact with both international football union FIFA and the International Olympic Commitee IOC.
The kosovar working group is hoping that the international communities will allow the kosovars to be part of the Olympic Games in Beijing 2008.
Whether the kosovar athletes will compete in the Olympics Games is still unsure. The working group is still negotiating with the IOC to let Kosovo compete in the Olympics 2008 on the background that East Timor was allowed in the Olympics in Sydney in 2000 even though the country was not yet internationally recognized as a nation then.
Sportsjournalist Driton Latifi is hoping for just that to happen:
-We are kosovar and that is how we want people around the world to see us. We want to be recognized for who we are.
What are your views on the Kosovo situation - can Kosovo play the game???
19 responses so far ↓
1 Troels // Oct 29, 2007 at 11:57 pm
Sure. Kosovo should have the oppotunity to play the game. Even though the country is not recognized as a nation, I think they should be able to have a national team.
The war is long gone, and it is not fair to let them wait to get the national team, until they are recognized as a nation.
2 Warchild // Oct 30, 2007 at 5:49 am
Sport is one bright side of the after-war period in Kosovo. It is also one of the few things that has made the most gains and maintained those throughout the years. Mind you, it has not been an easy road, but it just seems that when it comes to sports, the exuberance is unsurpassed in other fields of life.
Sport is the only field of life that has transpired the ethnic divisions on the national level. For example, you have a basketball club from the northern, Serb part of Mitrovica playing the team in the southern, Albanian part. Basketball and other sports matches are pretty much all the interaction that the two ethnicities get there, despite living a bridge apart from each other. Other basketball and football teams incorporate players from Bosnia, Croatia, Albanian, Montenegro, and Macedonia on top of the sport powerhouse nations such as the United States. The girls of my hometown handball team recently got the chance to play a team from Serbia. Imagine the cathartic event considering that out of a couple of thousands of Serbs before the war, none lives there today, and that, hundreds of Albanians are still missing and many others found in mass graves in Serbia.
Kosovars care deeply about sports will all the major championships and leagues broadcast and followed religiously. Pick up any newspaper or TV program schedule and you will see what I mean.
That is why the current isolation of Kosovar sport is unacceptable. Rather than finding reasons to keep Kosovo’s sports teams from international participation, relevant authorities should look instead in ways to make it possible. The fact that Kosovo is not independent yet does not carry much water because many other regions with unique identities such as Scotland, Northern Ireland, and the Faroe Islands have been participating in international competitions without second thoughts. Moreover, whatever form Kosovo status resolution takes in the future, it is understood even by Serbia’s own admission that Kosovo will be able to represent itself in international sporting events.
But we do not have to and should not go that deep into the murky water of politics. We only have to consider those cheese video spots you get during sporting events: sport is a major force for good and it can makes friends out of enemies. I know this because I have seen it in the last eight years in Kosovo.
Just let Kosovo play!
3 albion // Dec 31, 2007 at 11:12 pm
te dua shum edhe je lojtari ma i mir ne bot ok good bay
4 Zeexo // May 17, 2008 at 1:44 am
Kosovo is part of Serbia and Serbia is already playing so …
5 atdhe latifaj // May 29, 2008 at 6:21 pm
oh driton bre , shum mir po din me skru anglisht bre, ani t fala krejt, good luck
6 shannaon // Jul 7, 2008 at 5:37 pm
kosova has never been a part of the filthy dirty serbia and it will never be a part of serbia. so the serbs keep dreaming your albanian cos you wish you were. kosova is the BEST place in the world and KOSOVO will WIN the Olympics
7 gim // Jul 24, 2008 at 12:41 pm
i would explain this zeexo that KOSOVA and do try to forget the former expression under serbian occupation “kosovo”, because it was wrong, approximately every country in the world ends in A :Albania, America, Argentina, and it’s the easiest and more useful way of naming …..that’s wrong to say that…..and now we are talking on sports. In former yugosllavia othe republics made the country strong and YU always won …..what can serbia do alone now…..nothing
Kosova was occupied , it was under occupation but be aware and not stupid, do understand correctly that Kosova in a near future is going to beat Serbia as well, because I think you’re informed about spotsmen, fotballers playing abroad, because their families were forced to flee due to a genocide and terror caused by this country and now Serbia will recognise Kosova or Kosovan national team especially or it will be punished by FIFA or UEFA, or serbs then will have to be back to where they came from in the seventh century…..
i do have much more to explain , but i’ll let it for the future
but be patient and tolerant , sports and people , no matters any don’t like the fact, tehy will meet in competitions and face like men to men
8 agron // Aug 13, 2008 at 5:37 pm
fuck serb proud to be albanian kosovar look mother fucker wen kosova gonna play football we gonna fuck serbian up and u know wat fagots we fuck serbian sluts and we tell them to go home so fuck uuu Zeexo get a fucking life
9 hazir // Aug 19, 2008 at 5:05 pm
fuck serbia long life kosova
10 Mimi Kosovare e madheeee // Aug 23, 2008 at 9:05 pm
Hahahaha do you know what is serbia?
Ok serbia is nothing and the people are very ugly and shity lucking so they are very yellow with pink eyes hahahah.
Ok they are son of a bitch all of serbien people are gay and cunt mother fuckers LOL.
Oops sorry but is the truth so serbia is very big haters in the world no body like them and God dont like them either because thej are not 100% people hahahaha they are davils and God dont like DAVILS .
Hahahahah qa kom qef me fol te verteten per shkavella breee .
Kosovare 4 ever breeeee oooo shkavella ju hangt rusija e grekt n’both gay mather fuckers LOL.I love love love when i say thet what mother fuckers serbs are.
11 Mimi Kosovare e madheeee // Aug 23, 2008 at 9:12 pm
Hall yeah Kosova can play fucking game shit were the bast so we play and play and always win.Hello we are Kosovare not Serbs we are very smart people we can do anything .
Fuck yeah we play and win at the same time shit serbs are nothing but stupid gay fuckers they only like to fuck with gay so funny body win if
12 LONI // Sep 11, 2008 at 11:13 pm
fuck serbia! i mean you really went for it all, you wanted to take over the world, but something went wrong. what? i mean, how can dumbasses like you serbs rule the world, your so stupid. just watch. how big was serbia whith help from russia? what russia gave you under WW 1 and 2, is alla gone today. slovenia?Croatia? Macedonia? Montenegro? all gone… have you heard about serbia being like Nokia, wery big from the beginnning, then it just becomes smaller and smaller. ahhahaha.
when will you see that Kosova never was and never will be yours. my tip is to move forward, but thats hard for you dumbasses- stupid serbs hahaha
13 Rhinori // Oct 7, 2008 at 1:00 am
- hey Dritton . shum foort paske daL …. phaa hehahe …
- kLm .
14 Romona Wyatt // Nov 13, 2008 at 4:29 am
1j3n078wbmxko28i
15 adolf // Dec 18, 2008 at 7:10 pm
shum i keq je o driton! spo dishe me shkrujt hiq!
hahaha
16 pisi // Dec 18, 2008 at 7:11 pm
ju is agli
17 majmuni // Dec 18, 2008 at 7:11 pm
hahaha ugly!
18 majmuni // Dec 18, 2008 at 7:11 pm
hahaha ugly!
19 balkan // Aug 26, 2009 at 1:29 pm
FUCK OF ALL serbs.LONG LIVE KOSOVA,BOSNIA,ALBANIA AND MAKEDONIA
Leave a Comment