{"id":290536,"date":"2023-09-12T21:35:47","date_gmt":"2023-09-12T21:35:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sports-life-news.com\/?p=290536"},"modified":"2023-09-12T21:35:47","modified_gmt":"2023-09-12T21:35:47","slug":"kosovos-players-walk-off-the-pitch-against-romania-after-chants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sports-life-news.com\/soccer\/kosovos-players-walk-off-the-pitch-against-romania-after-chants\/","title":{"rendered":"Kosovo&apos;s players WALK OFF the pitch against Romania after chants"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>Kosovo&#8217;s players WALK OFF the pitch during their Euro 2024 qualifying clash against Romania after fans chanted &#8216;Kosovo is Serbia&#8217;, while they also unfurled banners with the same offensive message<\/h1>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Kosovo faced off against Romania in a tense Euro 2024 qualifier in Bucharest\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>The visitors walked off the pitch in the first half after anti-Kosovan chanting<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Listen to the latest episode of Mail Sport&#8217;s podcast It&#8217;s All Kicking Off!\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Kosovo&#8217;s Euro 2024 qualifier against Romania was halted after Romanian fans were heard chanting &#8216;Kosovo is Serbia&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p>The offensive gesture &#8211; which also included banners being unfurled in the stands by Romanian supporters with the same message &#8211; resulted in the Kosovan players leaving the pitch before they headed to the changing rooms.<\/p>\n<p>Only 19 minutes of the clash had been played, with the score level at 0-0 at the time of the suspension.<\/p>\n<p>Kosovo and Serbia are at odds due to that fact that Kosovo is a mainly ethnic Albanian-populated territory that was formerly a province of Serbia. It declared independence in 2008.<\/p>\n<p>However, Serbia has refused to recognise this and still considers it part of the country, despite having no formal control there.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/09\/12\/21\/75350387-0-image-a-23_1694548987339.jpg\" height=\"422\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Kosovo&#8217;s Euro 2024 qualifier against Romania was halted after Romanian fans were heard chanting &#8216;Kosovo is Serbia&#8217;, while they also unfurled banners which said the same thing<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/09\/12\/21\/75351497-12510575-image-a-44_1694551483562.jpg\" height=\"341\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>The offensive gestures resulted in the Kosovan players leaving the pitch after just 19 minutes<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/09\/12\/21\/75351957-12510575-image-a-46_1694551556302.jpg\" height=\"478\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Romania is one country that refuses to recognise Kosovo&#8217;s independence from Serbia in 2008<\/p>\n<p>Your browser does not support iframes.<\/p>\n<p>Kosovo&#8217;s independence has been recognised by about 100 countries, including the UK and the US.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>However, some countries such as Russia and China still side with Serbia, while Romania is another nation to not recognise its independence.<\/p>\n<p>The deadlock has resulted in tensions continuing and means the Balkan region remains unstable following the bloody wars during the 1990s.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Hostilities between Kosovo and Serbia have simmered over recent months and resulted in several renowned figures commenting on the issues.<\/p>\n<p>This included tennis star Novak Djokovic, who wrote a message on a camera lens at the French Open back in May which read: &#8216;Kosovo is the heart of Serbia! Stop the violence.&#8217;\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The clash between Romania and Kosovo eventually resumed after a 50 minute stoppage but showed no signs of becoming less feisty with six yellow cards in the first half, while Kosovan striker\u00a0Vedat Muriqi was also sent off.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/09\/12\/22\/75351535-12510575-image-a-50_1694552414962.jpg\" height=\"391\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>The anti-Kosovan chanting came from the Romanian ultras at the Arena Nationala in Bucharest<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/09\/12\/21\/75351501-12510575-image-a-47_1694551590996.jpg\" height=\"406\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0The clash was delayed for 50 minutes as organisers and officials tried to resolve various issues<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/09\/12\/21\/75351943-12510575-image-a-49_1694551706260.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>When the game resumed the tension didn&#8217;t ease with six yellows and one red in the first half<\/p>\n<p>Before the game even begun, Romanian ultras chanted &#8216;Serbia, Serbia&#8217; when the Kosovan anthem was played, which led to stadium officials playing the anthem even louder to cover the sounds as ethnic tensions escalated in Bucharest.<\/p>\n<p>After the delay, stadium announcers then sent out a message which said: &#8216;Efforts are being made to restart the match. Please stop chanting our neighbour&#8217;s name! Revisionism is not tolerated by UEFA. This is the final warning.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>Riot police and security officials also tried to engage in conversation with the ultras responsible for leading the chanting, with match officials then meeting UEFA delegates.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>A final warning was sent out by stadium announcers, before they urged supporters not to &#8216;chant our neighbour&#8217;s name. Don&#8217;t show the same banner&#8217;.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>A separate banner that read &#8216;Bessarabia is Romania&#8217; was also unfurled in the same stands as the anti-Kosovan one.<\/p>\n<p>This slogan is a popular and commonly used Romanian nationalist one which claims that the region of Bessarabia is Romania, despite it being divided between Moldova and parts of Ukraine.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Tension on the football pitch between Kosovo and Serbia is perhaps best-remembered through Granit Xhaka and Xherdan Shaqiri&#8217;s actions at the World Cup.<\/p>\n<p>The Swiss stars &#8211; who are of Kosovan descent &#8211; celebrated their goals during a 2-1 win over Serbia by making an eagle gesture, resembling the double headed eagle of the Albanian flag. Albania traditionally has complex and unfriendly relations with Serbia.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The politically-charged game between Romania and Kosovo was level at 0-0 at half-time.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>MORE TO FOLLOW\u00a0<\/p>\n<h3>IT&#8217;S ALL KICKING OFF!\u00a0<\/h3>\n<p><span><span>It&#8217;s All Kicking Off is an exciting new podcast from Mail Sport that promises a different take on Premier League football.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><span>It is available on MailOnline, Mail+, YouTube, Apple Music and Spotify.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Your browser does not support iframes.<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/sport\/football\/article-12510575\/Kosovos-players-WALK-pitch-Euro-2024-qualifying-clash-against-Romania-fans-chanted-Kosovo-Serbia-unfurled-banners-offensive-message.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kosovo&#8217;s players WALK OFF the pitch during their Euro 2024 qualifying clash against Romania after fans chanted &#8216;Kosovo is Serbia&#8217;, while they also unfurled banners with the same offensive message Kosovo faced off against Romania in a tense Euro 2024 qualifier in&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":290535,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.8 - 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