Tension skyrocketing at the stage of Bucharest for the match Of Nations League Between Romania e Kosovo: a few minutes before the end of the match, some fans of the home team started chanting heart for Serbia: “Kosovo is Serbia”. After a few moments of surprise and disbelief, the visiting players decided to leave the pitch in protest.
Cori pro Serbia in the Romania-Kosovo match
The score of the match was 0-0 when the incident occurred. The videos immortalizing everything immediately made the rounds on social media.
Some frames also show Serbian flags in the stands, further provoking the Kosovo players.
The visiting players returned to the changing rooms, after tensions and the beginning of a brawl on the pitch with their opponents.
The previous case
What happened on the evening of Friday 15 November is not an isolated case. Two months before the match between the same teams for the sixth round of the qualifiers Euro 2024 it was suspended after 15 minutes of play due to a banner displayed by some ultras, which had outraged the Kosovars who then returned to the changing rooms.
Even in that case the offending sentence was the same: “Kosovo is Serbia”. So it was written in large letters on a banner in the stands of the Arena National in Bucharest. The Kosovars resumed playing only after the banner was removed.
The reason for the tensions between Kosovo and Serbia
Originally there was the Yugoslaviauntil 1991 composed of Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro, Macedonia and Serbia. During the Yugoslav period (1945-1991), Kosovo was a autonomous province within Serbia.
In 1989, Slobodan Milosevic, Serbian leader, revoked Kosovo’s autonomy, intensifying tensions with the Albanian population who considered themselves discriminated against and oppressed.
After the dissolution of Yugoslavia, in the 1990s tensions transformed into a series of violent clashes, in a crescendo of killings and brutality that resulted in the ethnic cleansing. The Serbs withdrew only in 1999, after the intervention of the United States and other NATO allies, including Italy.
In 2008, Kosovo unilaterally declaredindependence from Serbia, recognized by many countries but not by Serbia and other nations such as Russia and China. The war left deep ethnic and political divisions. While Kosovo has developed independent institutions, Serbia still considers the region an integral part of its territory. Tensions between the two sides remain high, with occasional political and diplomatic clashes.
Photo source: ANSA
Source: notizie.virgilio.it
