The qualification for the Euro 2020 had missed the team of the Bernard Challandes already before the last round. So the duel turned against the table leader of group A from England for the next thing. At the end of a clear 4:0 victory, the big wouldn’t be really worth talking about was the result for the “Three Lions”. Were it not for the very friendly welcome of the guests from the home Fans that celebrated the special relationship of the two countries.

Days had been happy, the Fans in Pristina on the guests of the island. A week before kick-off had been sighted in the capital of Kosovo, numerous banners, “Welcome & Respect”lettering, decorated with the flags of both countries, as well as a red Poppy flower, with the help of the British to Express their support for the army and the memory of fallen soldiers, lined the streets. In a shop in the centre of a Poster of the English striker boasted Raheem Sterling, “Welcome bro” was read to.

away game in Pristina, Welcome by the Fans. (Photo: Keystone)

20 years after the Kosvo war

“We do this out of respect for our friends who have helped us in establishing our own state,” said Agim Ademi, the President of the Kosovo football Federation KFF, the action on the day before the England game against the “German wave”. “England and his then Prime Minister, Tony Blair, have played a key role in this.”

twenty years Ago, the UK was part of Nato forces, the intervention in the Kosovo war against Serbia and the independence of the 2-million-inhabitants-Republic of used. Famous for the picture that shows a British soldier takes a break from his patrol to play with Kosovar children soccer .

A sign against racism

But the Banner would have had even a further, much more recent reason. In previous Games in Eastern Europe, the English had failed, contrary to an open Display of established racism, as the darkest Chapter in the away remained the recent game in Bulgaria, in the memory, as a spectator in the stands, monkey sounds and insults of gifts, as well as the Hitler Gruss showed. “We know how it feels to be discriminated against. We have experienced it all long enough with his own body. But were many of our compatriots abroad, and have met other cultures and religions”, said Ademi. “Therefore, Albanians are not racist are!”

At the start in the stadium, as the Speaker announced the starting line-up of guests, reverberates in every Englishman, his surname through the night sky of Prishtina, each Heimfan holds an English flag high, stretched, and tried, the anthem sing along.

It’s not all rosy

The hospitality towards the English players, Fans and the country from which they come, it’s real. And is lived not only by the top-level of the Confederation, but also of the population. It should nevertheless be noted that the ratio of the Kosovo Albanians towards other Nations or groups of the population in the country is also marked by discrimination and disadvantage. In the web and social media Videos such as the following, the Kosovar and the English Fans are circulating shows ally, as you sing together “Serbians are bastards”.

The Serbian minority in Kosovo, around 13’000 people, is facing 20 years after the conclusion of peace in the war in Kosovo, a negative attitude of the Kosovar population. And so everything is not always as rosy as anti-racist and guest-friendly as on that Saturday evening, the England secures first place in group A.

third mid – term of the Tamedia football-Podcast

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(ECA)

Created: 18.11.2019, 11:11 PM

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