Serbia Scraps Handball Match With Kosovo, Citing Security

Belgrade cancelled Friday's planned match between the women's junior handball teams from Serbia and Kosovo amid rising tensions and fears of possible clashes between Serbian fans and police.

Kosovo junior women’s handball team. Photo: Handball Federation of Kosovo

Serbia’s government on Friday cited security reasons as the reason for cancelling a match between the Serbia and Kosovo junior women’s handball teams, a qualifier for the World Cup, Blic newspaper said.

The government called off the match after videos showed Serbian fans heading to Kovilovo, near Belgrade, where the match was supposed to take place, singing nationalist songs.

Serbian Interior Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic said that he wanted to avoid any violent clashes between Serbian fans and police.

“Could we arrange for this match to be held? For sure. But what would be the price? Conflicts between our people and police over things we do not believe in [and] are contrary to our interests. So we aren’t ready for the police to beat people in order to ensure a match goes ahead that is contrary to all our stances,” Stefanovic told Tanjug news agency on Friday.

Previously it was agreed that the match would be played in Serbia without fans or media present, and without national anthems or the display of national symbols.

For security reasons, the game was also moved to the small town of Kovilovo from the city of Kragujevac.

Tensions were already running high over the match against the team from Kosovo, whose independence from Serbia is fiercely resented by nationalist Serbs.

Kosovo’s ambassador to the US, Vlora Citaku, accused Serbia of playing a “double game” as the match was cancelled on the same day as the presidents of Kosovo and Serbia were meeting in Brussels to talk about the normalisation of relations.

“President Thaci of Kosovo and President Vucic of Serbia are in Brussels for yet another round of dialogue for normalisation. Meanwhile, as they meet, government in Serbia decided to ban their Women U20 Handball Team from playing Kosovo team,” Citaku wrote on Twitter.

The Youth Initiative for Human Rights Serbia and the Youth Initiative for Human Rights in Kosovo strongly condemned the banning of the match.

In a joint statement, the human rights NGOs said that “violence should be stopped, not sport”.

“Unfortunately, the government of Serbia has once again retreated in front of a violent and destructive part of society, at the expense of those who value peace, dialogue and cooperation. The opportunity for a normal life, joint work and competition is continually being taken away from young people, this time from sportspeople,” they said in a statement.

They added that people who threatened the safety of athletes must be prosecuted.

But right-wing Serbian party Dveri welcomed the government’s decision.

“We are asking the government to examine the whole case urgently, as well as to examine the responsibility of Sports Minister Vanja Udovicic and the leadership of the Serbian Handball Federation, who made a shameful decision and allowed the playing of qualifying matches with so-called Kosovo, which holds 15 per cent of the territory of Serbia under occupation,” Dveri said in a press release.

Dveri also said that it was ready to “surround the hall in Kovilovo” to prevent the match.

The secretary of Kosovo Handball Federation, Izet Gjinovci, told BIRN that security had already been stepped up at the sports hall in Kovilovo.

“There are many security forces at the sports hall and at the hotel where we are accommodated; even on the way here there are three lines of police,” Gjinovci said.

NOTE: This article was updated on March 23 to include statements from Kosovo’s ambassador to the US, Vlora Citaku, the Youth Initiative for Human Rights Serbia, the Youth Initiative for Human Rights in Kosovo, Serbian political party Dveri and the secretary of the Kosovo Handball Federation, Izet Gjinovci.