The Diplomat
Tonight’s 2022 Qatar World Cup qualifier between the Spanish and Kosovo football teams at the Cartuja stadium in Seville has created great expectation in diplomatic circles as to how the team representing the province that unilaterally gained independence from Serbia in 2008 will be treated.Tonight’s match at the Cartuja stadium in Seville between the Spanish national football teams and the Kosovo territory,
Spain is one of the five EU countries that does not recognise the self-proclaimed state of Kosovo, among other reasons, because of the repercussions it could have on the Catalan conflict. For this reason, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is trying to prevent the football match from giving rise to any action that could be interpreted as a change in the position it has maintained until now.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Arancha González Laya, reiterated last Monday, when asked about this issue, that the match will be played according to the rules of football, which are set by FIFA, but stressed that the rules for the recognition of states are set by international law.
In practice, this will mean that in the Cartuja stadium the Kosovar anthem will be played and the flag of Kosovo will be visible, although the fact that, due to the pandemic, the players will not come out onto the pitch with a large flag, accompanied by children, will mean that the Kosovar flag will be limited to being on the video scoreboard and next to the Spanish flag.
In any case, the Foreign Ministry has sent guidelines to the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) and to Radiotelevisión Española, which will broadcast the match, on protocol issues when referring to Kosovo, indicating that this should be done in a ‘neutral’ way, avoiding the name of the Republic of Kosovo, which is the official name.
In fact, on TVE and Radio Nacional de España their announcers have already spoken, on several occasions, of the Kosovo Football Federation team and the RFEF, referring to the territory of Kosovo, mentions that have annoyed the Kosovar authorities and media.
The Republic of Kosovo, which has now been recognised by a hundred countries, was admitted to the International Olympic Committee in 2014 and to UEFA and FIFA in 2016. It is the first time that its national football team has faced Spain, which no longer used its right to veto their inclusion in the same qualifying group, as it had already used that power with Gibraltar.
