Office for Kosovo and Metohija
Government of the Republic of Serbia

Office for Kosovo-Metohija: FIFA complicit in legal violence

The decision of the International Football Federation (FIFA) to accept into its membership the football federation of the self-proclaimed Kosovo is the most drastic example of politics interfering in sports, and of the irresponsible keeping a blind eye to the unforeseeable consequences that this decision will have on football.

Instead to looking after the interests of sports, FIFA has hereby undertook the role of a political body, completely oblivious to the fact that the first teams of countries that do not recognize the unilaterally proclaimed independence of Kosovo and Metohija will be put before a difficult choice when placed in a situation to play against the “first team selection” of a non-existent state.

By its decision to accept the so-called Kosovo Football Federation as a member, FIFA has become an accomplice in legal violence which the self-proclaimed Kosovo has ushered into the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA). The Serbian Football Association today filed a complaint against this with the International Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne.

We expect that the annulment of the UEFA decision before a court in Lausanne would result in revoking of the today’s decision by FIFA.