Fan violence is a characteristic of football seen in all major leagues and on the international stage. Some officials are optimistic, not seeing much chance for this in Kosovo, while others prepare for the unpredictable.
“Football is a dynamic game and you can’t ever know what will happen” in the stands,” said Fadil Vokrri, one of the football legends from the times of former Yugoslavia, and the current president of the Football Federation of Kosovo through a translator.
Kosovo currently does not host games, because it does not have a stadium ready to meet international standards. Soon that will change. A stadium in Mitrovice has been completed while one in its capitol Pristina is still under development, and a third is being built in Peja.
The head of security for the Kosovo national team, Bylent Smakiqi said there are many security measures being considered for home matches, and for the new stadiums, but did not divulge many specifics.
“We have not discussed in detail yet…but of course the stadium will have all the security criteria needed to meet what UEFA asked for.”
He added that “more details will be provided later on when we get closer to the finish line… There will also be a tour” of the stadium upon completion. He said that “we will fulfill all the criteria needed.”
The security equipment and UEFA procedures can be put in place, but questions always remain about other measures, including how to control the attitude and behavior of fans.
For the games in Kosovo, Vokrri outlined the general security precautions. Before each game the security estimates the safety level, they call the police who stay outside. They only come in the stadium in dangerous circumstances, a riot, for instance. They check for sharp objects at the entrance, no weapons are allowed. Security officials are planning to install metal detectors at the Pristina stadium as developments progress. The only active precautions against violence are the security guards who monitor the fans from the crowds and the police who can enter the stadium when needed.
They also take precautions to limit provocative chants such as the one that resulted in the fine Kosovo received recently.
“We stop all kind of political banners and racism” Smakiqi said.“We try to stop them at the gate.”
In the case of a fan with a racist or politically provocative banner, the fan will be kicked out if possible but “it may be difficult to get in between 2,000 fans, that might cause a bigger problem” he said.
“But if the chance is there you will try to remove it… and let the team concentrate on football and take the precautions for the next match.”
On the topic of racist behavior he was clear though, “political is serious but racism is something we cannot accept.”
Right now, Kosovo national team plays in Albania, when the Albanian team has away games.
During their games in Albania, the security is handled mainly by the Albanian police and a security company in coordination with Smakiqi and Kosovar security officials.
It was in Shkodra, Albania that Kosovo was fined 30,000 Swiss Francs for fan participation in a racist chant as video footage captured Kosovar and Croatian fans chanting “Kill the Serbs”.
These are concerns in every country where football is a major sport. But for a new nation like Kosovo, with a strained budget, who was only recognized by FIFA and UEFA in May 2016, costs could pose a problem.
Belligerent fans and nationalism is a problem for many countries. In Ireland a person used to be unable to walk down a Protestant street wearing a Celtic jersey for fear of being physically attacked. It was the riots at a Red Star Belgrade V. Dinamo Zagreb match in 1990 that presaged the collapse of the Yugoslav state. Ever since, football in Balkan countries has seen multiple episodes of nationalist violence.
In 2014, Croat and Bulgarian fans threw flares and bombs at each-other in the stands as riots broke out. A Levski supporter then raised a banner that read “Serbs on a rope” as Croatian fans applauded. That same year, someone flew a greater Albania flag during an Albanian match against Serbia, in its capitol Belgrade, before a Serb player ripped the flag down, which led to clashes between the two clubs players. Fights also broke out in a Bosnian football match between Sloboda and FK Sarajevo in 2016, which Balkan Insight reported as “common”.
The Croatian club Hajduk was also recently fined for racist chants against Serbs while they played the Bulgarian club Levski. And just a few days ago, fans from Hajduk and Everton clashed at a match in England.
The Independent recalled in 2013 a fan’s comment before a Croatian club played a Serbian one for the first time since the 1991 war between the two countries.
“The majority of people don’t care about football, it’s about hatred,” the fan said.
Politics is very much present, not just in Balkan football but European football in general. The general trend of nationalist violence and chants at football games can be seen across the continent.
Not everybody believes these trends will reach Kosovo in any serious way however.
Officials in Kosovo remain hopeful that fan behavior at their matches won’t be much of a problem.
“The fans are usually educated and they don’t do much.” Vokrri said. “But you can never know when things will get heated.” He continued, saying the team “haven’t had much problems” and in the case of troublesome fans, the referee can ask the police to kick them out”.
Vokrri used the example of the “5 or 6 fans” who chanted “Kill the Serbs” at the recent match with Croatia. Kosovar authorities “got the names of fans who did that and they won’t be allowed in the next games” he said. As for the political climate that underpins the violence at Balkan football matches and around the world in general, this “won’t be a problem” he said.
The worse he expected from fans was “maybe cursing or something like that, but nothing serious.”
When asked about matches against states that may not recognize Kosovo he argued that nationalist tensions wouldn’t play a role.
“Maybe if you play Serbia, but not for states that don’t recognize Kosovo.”
Kosovar National Team manager, Bajram Shala similarly said “We didn’t have this issue until now. We organized 3 games as a host against Croatia on 6th October of last year then we had the games against Iceland and Turkey and we didn’t have these kind of problems with our fans.”
“No, actually we are not worried, because we have very cultured fans. They know how to support our team, they know how to help us and they are not with us to make problems. They are with us to support us, so we are not worried about this at all,” he added.
Some are more worried than others. Shala said “we do know the situation and all the things Kosovo has been through and we know countries who are against our independence and that could make it a high-risk game.”
Shala said Kosovar fans are not less nationalistic than fans of other Balkan countries.
“We feel our pride when we wear our jersey, our Kosovo jersey… It’s much more than a football team,” he explained.
Smakiqi laid out the security concerns in more detail. He separated the matches Kosovo would face into three categories.
“Is it high risk, low risk, middle risk. The games Kosovo has previously played, have been ‘low risk matches,’” he said.
The security on previous matches was good and of course for security in matches in the future… there will be trained security who can handle these kind of situations.”
As far as what constitutes a high risk or low risk match, according to Smakiqi, it depends on “what nationality the team you play against” are.
He used the example of England in the EURO 2016 cup.
In “Euro 2016, you had matches where England played against countries where fans were quite explosive… it depends on the atmosphere,” he said.
Shala spoke of the potential risk of playing a team like Montenegro where Albanian nationalists would have a good chance of confronting Serb nationalists though he found no reason to be concerned.
“I don’t think that would be a high-risk game. We don’t have many problems with Montenegro. It would be a middle risk game.”
Smakiqi saw a cause for alarm in nationalism in football matches. “Every country has their own hooligans” but that they “should not mix politics and football.”
“We try to avoid and not think politics when we play football” he said.
(Austin Langdon was a reporting intern at KosovaLive this summer, in cooperation with Miami University in the United States.)
