Serbia-Albania: political flag triggers the fight, game suspended – Corriere della Sera

clashes in the field and in the stands

Milan , October 15, 2014 – 1:26

     
     
 

A drone of a few hundred Euros. A flag with a big stain and two faces that are closer to the field. A player who pulls the drape. A brawl. A suspended game after forty minutes. And thousands of fans who took to the streets waving the black eagle with two heads in the square Mother Teresa of Calcutta, in Tirana. The same one where the pope celebrated Mass for Francis enhance the harmony between ethnic groups and faiths.

Closed doors to the visiting fans

What Serbia and Albania would not be an easy match, qualifier for Euro 2016, was known for months. It is no coincidence that the Uefa had decided to close the doors of the stadium in Belgrade to the visiting fans. It is not enough to avoid accidents. Because after the whistle Albanian hymn, a drone appeared on the field of Partizan Stadium carrying a black flag with a red form (the ethnic Albania, for which you are flying by the end of 1800), two sides (those of Albanian political heroes and Ismail Isa Boletini Qemali) and an inscription: “Native.” Not just a provocation. An affront. When you consider that Serbia does not recognize Kosovo’s autonomy, always considered his own rib. And that right there was a war over Kosovo, in 1999, with hundreds of deaths on both sides.

The flag disputed

L'arbitro English Martina Atkinson stops for a few seconds challenge. And it is at this moment that the player Mitrovic of Serbia grabs the cloth to make it disappear. But is overwhelmed by their opponents. Take the fight. Some local fan throws plastic chairs against the players guests. Slaps and punches. From the bleachers praising Vladimir Putin, shouting “Kosovo is Serbia”, they burn the flag of NATO, guilty – according to local supporters – of stealing their Kosovo in Belgrade.

Police intervention

The meeting is suspended. It falls in the locker room bombarded by the launch of various objects. The referee threatens not to take more than the challenge. He tries to convince guests to play. But once in the field is the same race director who decides to close it here. “There were no conditions to continue,” says the observer Uefa. The violence now minutes before crossing the border sports. Now I’m purely political and historical.

The role of the brother of Prime Minister

“I’m proud of our players until there was football. But I’m sorry for the shameful spectacle to the world of our neighbors, “he writes on Twitter Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama. The prime minister must then also manage voice that spreads quickly: Olsi his brother, a doctor in the United States with the house, is given to arrested by the Serbian police. “Did he piloted the drone,” writes Blic newspaper in Belgrade. “It is not true, is here with me, we are going back in Albania,” belies a television host of Tirana. The latest version, the third says that his brother was actually stopped for about fifty minutes. Then released. “The history of the kick,” comments on Facebook Pandeli Majko, a lawmaker and former Socialist prime minister in the country of eagles.

Fans in square

Meanwhile, late at night, the Albanian national football team remains locked in the locker room. Hundreds of fans descend through the central streets of Tirana, waving Albanian flags, they burn some Serbian and shouting slogans. They swear vengeance for the return leg scheduled in almost a year, on 8 October 2015 and re-emerge on social divisions and threats. The Albanian lauding the ‘Greater Albania’ (Albania, Kosovo, half of Macedonia, a part of northern Greece, a clove of Montenegro and Serbia). The Serbs to the reconquest of Pristina asking the intervention of Russia and of him, Putin. Now everyone is waiting for the decision of the European summits of football. And you know what will make the heads of government of Tirana and Belgrade. On October 22, is scheduled official visit of Prime Minister of Albania in Belgrade. The first since 1948 After the events of Tuesday night not all betting on the confirmation of that trip.

October 15, 2014 | 01:26

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