Posted
Qatar 2022Procedure against Serbia for the flag integrating Kosovo
The Serbian Federation is subject to disciplinary proceedings after the deployment of a banner Thursday before the match against Brazil.
Serbia lost 2-0 to Brazil on Thursday.
AFP
FIFA on Saturday opened disciplinary proceedings against the Serbian Federation because of the flag placing Kosovo in Serbia exhibited in the locker room of “Orlovi” before their match lost Thursday against Brazil (2-0) at the World Cup-2022.
The body does not cite any specific violation of its disciplinary code but relies on the general obligation of “fair play and non-violence” imposed on the 32 participants in the Qatari tournament.
The scale of sanctions that can be imposed on the federations ranges from a meeting behind closed doors to a defeat by forfeit, without FIFA indicating where the seriousness of the fault with which the Serbs are accused lies.
Taken in the changing rooms of Serbia before the match against Brazil, the offending photograph shows a map of Kosovo printed on a square of white fabric hung on two pegs. Kosovo is stamped with the flag of Serbia and the inscription “There will be no surrender”.
Official protest
The dissemination of the photo led to an official protest on Friday from Kosovo, via its Sports Minister Hajrullah Ceku, who denounced “shameful images” relaying “hateful, xenophobic and genocidal messages”.
“We expect concrete actions from FIFA, of which Kosovo is a full member,” continued the Minister of Sports. Kosovo joined the international football federation as well as UEFA, the European body, in 2016.
For its part, the Kosovo Football Federation (FFK) announced that it had filed a complaint with FIFA against “Serbia’s aggressive action” during its first match at the 2022 World Cup. “Such a chauvinistic act did not its place in sporting events and even less inside the enclosures where the biggest world football event is taking place, ”denounced the FFK.
(AFP)