Albanian and Serb football federations have met informally to discuss how to best hold trouble-free matches after the two countries fell in the same qualifier group during the draw
TIRANA, Feb. 23 – Albania’s national football team will face a very tough qualifying group during bid to get to the finals of the 2016 European Cup in France, the draw held this week has revealed.
Albanian players will face Portugal, Denmark, Serbia and Armenia in Group I. France, which is the place where the finals will be held in two years and thus automatically qualified, will also play friendlies in the same group but they will not be worth any points.
Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal are expected to lead the group, but Denmark and Serbia are also contenders for qualification against what are seen as the weaker Albania and Armenia sides. The Albanian media has already dubbed it “the group of hell,” because Albania usually gets easier qualifying groups.
There is also a political dimension to the draw, as Albania and Serbia have never met fell in the same qualifying groups since the days of Yugoslavia, and there are worries nationalist tensions will cause problems when the two matches are held in Belgrade and Tirana respectively in October 2014 and October 2015.
Due to long-lasting hostilities between Albanians and Serbs over the war in Kosovo in the 1990s, the federations are worried the matches will be used for nationalist clashes. Nearly half the Albanian national team is made up of Kosovo-born players or children of Kosovo-born parents.
The head of the Albania’s football federation, Armando Duka, told a local television station he had informally met with his Serb counterparts at the sidelines of the draw event, indicating had been unhappy with Albania and Serbia falling in the same group.
“The match with Serbia should be seen as a sporting event, not other things,” Duka said. “We have met with our counterparts. They are not too happy to face us either, but we are working to organize this in the best way possible.”
