Kosova: Finding the Way to Play Together Again

I remember one thing that a friend of mine said once. "Everyone can be a politician especially in Balkans, but sportsmen can not be anyone".

The biggest challenge of Kosovar sports after the war is getting all the minorities included in their own sports system and finding the pace for international scene.

Three years have passed since the end of the Kosovo war. There are a lot of things that you can see that tells the story that the war was not too long ago.

In a state where the rule of the government and the institutions is very much limited in different areas, you can hardly ask them about the problems that the Kosovar sports society are facing. On the other hand the Department of sports has taken some small measures to reconsolidate the sport.  After weeks of talks with the Kosovar officials of sports federations, it took some steps.

First all the Federations had to organize new elections and comply with standards that on the executive board of every Federation one place is reserved for the minorities or for other non-Albanian groups. This was not an easy task for Kosovars. It was at a time time when kosovars were still counting killed and massacred athletes and also those that are missing or are in prison in Serbia.

But some steps for a better understanding must be taken for a better life for everyone. So, the first steps have been already made.  The Kosovar sports federations got at least one representative of non-Albanian community.

Of course if this was the end of the story, then nothing would have been achieved.

Basketball and athletic teams play together
In connection with the use of sport as a tool of reconciliation in post-war societies, different Kosovar federations have had different approaches.

For example The Basketball Federation of Kosova is far ahead from the other Federations in Kosova, and this is why basketball is becoming the first sport in Kosova.

The hiring of the basketball coach from Croatia, Cedomir Cira Perincic, was a huge step. Of course he is Croatian and not a Serbian, but he speaks Serbo-Croatian so it is a small difference in your hearing. His language didn't cause any problems for the very noisy and fanatic supporters of the Basketball club of Prishtina. With him came another basketball player from Croatia.

There where other clubs who took the same steps. The team of Peja had two Bosnian basketball players that just a season before where playing in the First Yugoslav League.

Today, for the new season you can find 29 foreigners in Kosova. There are 12 Americans and between 5 coaches, one of them is from the Yugoslav League.

The Serbians of Kosovo find their interest as well, so they have organized the Team of Shterpce which is now playing in the second division.

The Basketball Federation even has organised a regional seminar about basketball with Serbian and Montenegrin experts taking part together with experts from the other regional countries in Balkans. There were no politics, pure sports discussions about the new methods of basketball and the future of this sport in the Balkans.

Athletics is anothers event where the parties find ways of playing together.

This April there was the International Prishtina Marathon. Participants were from Kosovo, Macedonia, Serbia, Bosnia, Albania, Slovenia, etc. And guess what: The winner was a Kosovar who emigrated a long time before to Belgrade and is now the reigning champion of Yugoslavia.

The winner received the champion medal and the cup from the Prime minister of Kosovo, Mr. Bajram Rexhepi. Not a single objection was made by anyone about the winner or the participants.

Challenges from political extremists
Amidst different approaches to bringing together all Kosovar communities through sport, both parties had to face political extremists.

In the beginning when FC Prishtina returned to its home ground, Serbians who had ruled over the city stadium before wanted to open a club with the same name in Belgrade.

Also, a football team of Serbians from Leposavic is playing part in a minor league of Serbia, and other athletes have taken part in national championships in Serbia or Yugoslavia.

There were also sad results from both parties.

In the beginning of 2002 the Ministry of sports of Kosovo had encouraged a lot of training camps where young participants of allethnic groups were taking part.

There was one skiing training camp, which took place in a very well known skiing center of Brezovica in the Southern part of Kosova. After 15 days of training, the championship was supposed to take part but local Serbian extremist put  pressure on the Serbs so they were not free to take part.

I have published an photo of one Albanian and one local Serb that took part in a training camp, and the next day the father of the Albanian came to my office asking me why I had published the photo as he was afraid of that.

The real test is mixed ethnic clubs
There is only an idea and encouraged plan about linking more communities inside the sports system of Kosovo. At the regional level a lot of things are covered with the 1244 UN resolution of Kosovo and the good will of neighbors for the Kosovar athletes.

There is a Serbian boxing team from Gracanica that has given some indications that it wants to take part in the Kosova boxing league. Also a football team from this village have expressed the wish to be part of the Football Federation.  A skiing team has made an application to become members of the Kosovar Skiing Federation.

The Kosovar sports officials have shown their interest of having the other minorities in the sports, like I mentioned above.  The Ministry of Sport is more engaged with the minorities. But, apart from the extremist problems from the both sides, Serbs are more connected with the Belgrade structure and are very slow in accepting the Kosovar sports institutions.

After this first phase passes about including the minorities on the sports system, there will be bigger challenges - a grand final.

There is no one who would like to see a pure ethnic clubs, so after playing together there will be a new challenge where the best players will be hired from the other clubs, bigger and with great ambitions. When this phases passes the problem will be really solved.

Maybe because Kosovar Albanians experience almost the same conditions in the 1990's, they are more focused on solving this problem.  It is ironic that although being inside the "ghetto" (from not being allowed to compete on the international scene) the kosovar athletes are now showing sportsman spirit working to bring together all minorities. Also in this sports system limited only to inside Kosovo, there was not a single example of financial or professional help from the world Federations to encourage this steps or to help the Kosovars pass their test on the international scene.

OK, some steps have been made. There were challenges, it will be hard but everyone is free to play and compete.