Radio comment « Free Europe » for the Albania-Serbia match

-Radio « Free Europe »-

Thousands of police forces were mobilized on Saturday in the Albanian capital, Tirana, to guarantee the well -being of the football match, which takes place in the evening between the Albanian and Serbia teams at the National Arena Stadium.

Albania and Serbia are part of Group K for qualifying matches at the 2026 World Cup, along with Latvia, Andorra and England. Currently, Albania has three points and is second in this group, while Serbia has no points.

The Serbian team arrived in Tirana on Friday afternoon, and under the escort of numerous police forces was accommodated at the hotel, and then conducted the necessary exercises.

State Police have called on citizens and fans to contribute to a civic and cultured atmosphere.

But despite all the enthusiasm that exists in a football match, matches between the teams of Albania and Serbia have other doses of emotion.

Citizens of the two countries are involved in great rivalry, which underlies historical and ethnic tensions, especially regarding the conflict in Kosovo and the wider Balkan history. Serbia continues to not recognize Kosovo’s citizenship, a majority Albanian state.

Almost half of the Albanian football team is in orgy from Kosovo and Northern Macedonia.

Therefore, as the Associated Press news agency writes, for players this competition has a mix of national history, politics and pride, and is another reminder that sometimes sport is everything but a game.

In 2014, in a match between the two nationals in Belgrade, the match was interrupted after a drone with the flag of « Greater Albania », entered the stadium and promoted the stadium in the stadium, and the nationalist calls of Serbs against Albanians.

Albanian security authorities have announced this time that they will use antidrons, and have banned racist, fireworks, flames, pyrotechnics and more at the stadium.

Albanian team coach Brazilian Sylvinho has called on players to use 90 minutes of playing on the field, give their best, respect the opponent and not deal with the aspect of social networks, which are full of patriotic content in recent days.

At a press conference on Friday, he said the players of both teams believe they are psychologically prepared to cope with the pressure of the game and the situation.

Serbian coach Dragan Stojkovic said Friday at the press conference that the match is very serious for the team he runs and that the focus is field and victory, not wanting to comment on ethnic relations.

But, unlike him, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has increased tensions the day before, when in a rally with his supporters, he urged Stojkovic to win Serbia.

« Go there and defeat them, » Vucic said referring to Stojkovic who was in the crowd.

The president of the Albanian Football Federation, Armand Duka, has called on Albanians to see the match as a sports event « where teams receive positive support and energy from fans to reach goal ».

In the June 7 match in the stadium will not be the official group of Albanian supporters, known as « Red and Black Fans », due to dissatisfaction with the Albanian Football Federation (AFF), mainly for the way of sale of tickets.