The Diplomat
Among the authorities in Madrid and Pristina yesterday, there were those who were watching the football match between the Spanish and Kosovar teams in Seville not only for sporting reasons, but also for diplomatic ones. The aim was to see how Televisión Española broadcast the match and how its commentators referred to the Kosovo team, a state that Spain does not recognise.
As for the latter, there were no surprises. Following the guidelines issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the commentators always avoided talking about the Republic of Kosovo, the official name of the entity that unilaterally gained independence from Serbia in 2008.
They used terms such as “the team of the Federation of Kosovo”, “the Kosovar team” or “Spain’s rival”.
Furthermore, it was striking that, when presenting the line-ups of the two teams, while in the case of Spain, the word “SPAIN” appeared in capital letters, next to the Spanish flag, in the case of their rival, the word “kosovo” appeared written in lower case and, next to it, the coat of arms of the Kosovo Football Federation, but not the coat of arms of the Republic of Kosovo.
Something similar happened on the scoreboard, where the abbreviation ‘ESP’ was written in capital letters and ‘kos’ in lower case.
What could be heard on the broadcast were the Spanish and Kosovo anthems, although it was not even mentioned by the announcers that they were being played.
In La Cartuja stadium, where the match took place, the Kosovo flag was flying next to the Spanish flag, but no images were shown. And from the public address system, when it was time for the anthems, it was announced: “Next we will listen to the anthems of the match”, without referring to them as “national anthems”.
Spain, which is one of the five countries of the European Union that does not recognise Kosovo, insisted that diplomatic recognition is one thing and that the rules of football are another, according to which both UEFA and FIFA have accepted the Kosovo Football Federation since 2016, as well as those of other territorial entities such as Scotland and Wales, which are not states.
