Kosovo headed to Romania for a Nations League clash on Friday night but the visitors walked off in the final minutes as frustration peaked following chants from the crowd
The Nations League clash between Kosovo and Romania was abandoned on Friday night
There were reports of offensive chanting with the Kosovo team walking off in the 93rd minutes of their match with the Romanian fans reportedly chanted about Serbia – who refuse to recognise Kosovo’s independence. UEFA did not explain why the game was cut short but Kosovo players were reportedly upset at hearing the pro-Serbian slogans.
The match was eventually abandoned an hour after it was stopped with the score at 0-0 with the Romanian players remaining on the pitch in sub zero temperatures. Kosovo’s players ordered pizza into their dressing room after walking off with riot police dividing them from the stands as they walked off.
Their manager Franco Foda said: “Unfortunately, at the end of the match, respect was lost. And that’s why we decided to leave the field. Then we talked to the players and everyone else. But the problem is that the situation in the stadium didn’t change then we all decided not to go back to the field and not to continue the match.
I’m sorry for that, as the team played a great game tonight. But everyone should respect the fact that we are Kosovo in the future to take appropriate steps so that what happened tonight does not happen again.”
Kosovo’s stars opted to keep up their protest when they were hit with a time ultimatum. They were told to re-emerge within five minutes or the game would be called off.
This is the second time a meeting between Kosovo and Romania has been involved in controversy. A Euro 2024 qualifier in September 2023 was suspended after Romania fans had chanted ‘Kosovo is Serbia’. On that occasion Kosovo’s stars did eventually re-emerge, only to lose 2-0, but this time they weren’t willing to play ball.
Kosovo captain Amir Rrahmani said: “There were constant calls ‘Serbia, Kosovo’. This happened for 90 minutes. In the extra minutes, the calls started with other words that I don’t want to repeat because it’s a shame.
“I told the ref for the first time to listen to them. He did nothing. The second time he didn’t want to listen. After the third time I told him we are going out because this is so wrong.
“They have been aware because our Federation has made it clear to them to try to avoid this. The fans started even more after that with chants of ‘Kosova, Serbia’. That’s why we decided not to go out again as happened last year. UEFA must decide because we are footballers, we are here to represent our people, our country, which has a difficult past.”
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