K2 0 sport

KOSOVO 2.0 PEOPLE/POLITICS/SOCIETY/ARTS/CULTURE #8 SPRING 2015

SPORTS A GUIDE TO GETTING FIT FORGING AN IDENTITY BEHIND THE TOP ATHLETES HOOLIGANS AND HATRED PICTURES OF THE PAST WHO’S GOING TO RIO? KOSOVO: € 5,- ELSEWHERE: € 15,- / $ 20,-

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR BESA LUCI

— IN SEPTEMBER 2014, Kosovo 2.0 launched an international crowd funding campaign under the slogan “Kosovo Wants to Play.” Much as athletes of sports in Kosovo rely on individual and public investment — both in time and in money — we also relied on the public’s commitment and will to support not only our magazine but also the cause of Kosovo’s athletes.

We were convinced that this topic would gather great support and generate debate. That’s because seven years into Kosovo’s independence, sports have been a constant reminder of the nation’s marginalized position in international forums. The inability to participate showed how some basic and fundamental rights are challenged. In the arena of sports, this has been apparent in two main domains.

On the one hand, Kosovo’s 2008 declaration of independence did not translate into an earlier belief that with statehood, the country’s participation in international structures and organizations would be granted. The majority of Kosovo’s sports federations were repeatedly denied membership in their respective international counterparts, leaving Kosovar athletes with few achievable dreams and aspirations. Prospects of world championships and the Olympics appeared far out of reach.

Recognizing the growing frustration of athletes and coaches, teams and federations, who saw their exclusion as a denial of their rights, we launched the “Kosovo Wants to Play” campaign in order to raise international awareness of their plea.

On the other hand, we were just as convinced that our responsibility as a magazine bestowed on us the obligation to equally highlight the shortcomings that sports in Kosovo have faced due to negligent state policies. The political barriers to the right of representation in international competitions were not acted upon or met with consistent state support. On the contrary, sports were never high on the government agenda, and little has been done over the years to offer the financial and infrastructural support that Kosovar sports need in order to thrive.

We began this issue with a determination to point to such barriers and struggles characterizing Kosovo’s sports and with a conviction grounded in the belief that sports can significantly serve as an agent of international recognition and, especially, an internal social and economic force.

Halfway through the production of this issue, in December 2014, the International Olympic Committee granted Kosovo full membership, paving the way for the country’s first representation in the Olympics. This news was met with great zeal and excitement, as such membership led to recognition from individual federations as well. Many eyes began turning toward Rio 2016. Meanwhile, 15 Kosovar athletes are also set to receive some modest support in the form of scholarships from local institutions and the International Olympic Committee to assist with their training (see “Who’s Tapped to Represent Kosovo at Rio 2016,” page 51).

However, this development also comes at a time when public

debate has been swayed and engulfed with images and reports of hundreds and thousands of Kosovar Albanians seeking a way out of the country — a way out of poverty, the lack of economic perspective, scarce job opportunities, and stained social mobility.

A recent news report by French site Footballski.fr delivers the story of two Kosovar athletes who have chosen the same path — the illegal crossing from Serbia into Hungary en route to other countries in the European Union. It reports how Shemsi Osmani, a 26-year-old football player for Llamkos Kosova, and Afrim Ademi, a member of the Trepça football club, no longer see a future in Kosovo, professionally and personally. A previously strong collective optimism has been broken by a lack of economic development and democratization, as well as Kosovo’s continued exclusion from Europe.

That is why in this issue we tackle sports as an integral part of our economic and political being, because it transcends discussion of games, scores and favorite teams. This issue ties in with discussions of rights to participation, and representation as a fundamental right; of sports as a catalyzer of social mobility; and how the politics of identity play out in the field. It looks at how sports can become divisive when national rhetoric takes the lead, but also can be a positive and transformative force when the global arena is localized. We have witnessed examples of both instances over the past year.

One was the case with the infamous “drone attack” in the Serbia-Albania European Championship qualification game. It attracted worldwide attention that simplistically framed it as yet another example, or syndrome, of how “the Balkans” behave violently. That such a form of fanaticism is not exclusive to the Balkans, is discussed compellingly by Loic Tregoures in this issue’s story “Hooliganism and the Blame Game,” page 14.

But sport can also be a unifying force, as became apparent in March 2014, when Kosovo played its first FIFA-sanctioned friendly, against Haiti in Mitrovica. Considered a great step forward for the recognition of Kosovo football, in many ways no other event has gathered as many Kosovars, embracing under the country’s own symbols and f lag, since the declaration of independence. Similar public reactions have also come to the forefront each time two-time world champion judoka Majlinda Kelmendi has brought home a trophy.

In the meantime, there is no doubt that until 2016 Olympics are over, Rio will remain in the spotlight. Regardless of the results attained, this will be Kosovo’s “historic representation” in the Olympics. But despite this enthusiasm, we should also acknowledge that international prospects for Kosovar athletes will ultimately depend on tangible conditions created within their country. And the time has come to focus greater attention at home, just as well. — K

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CONTENT KOSOVOTWOPOINTZERO MAGAZINE SPORTS - #8 SPRING 2015

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20

No organization, no equipment?

No problem. These inventive games are still a good time.

By Leke Berisha

Journalist Gani Kosumi’s photos detail a difficult time in Kosovo sports history.

By Kosovo 2.0

NEIGHBORHOOD FUN

KEEPING A RECORD

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GUIDE TO BALKAN FITNESS Don’t be a dumbbell; learn the secrets to a healthy lifestyle in Kosovo.

By Atrit Bytyci

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THE ULTIMATE GOAL Kosovo’s Olympic participation could mean much more than a chance at medals.

By James Montague

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THE BALKANS' BAD RAP When it comes to divisiveness, hooliganism has nothing on nationalism.

By Loic Tregoures

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IMPERFECT PITCH Even if FIFA’s membership rules make sense, their enforcement doesn’t.

By Michael McKenna

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CONTENT KOSOVOTWOPOINTZERO MAGAZINE SPORTS - #8 SPRING 2015

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NEXT STOP: RIO

NO PLACE LIKE HOME

Judo star and her coach are focused on 2016 Olympic Games.

By Virtyt Gaceferri

Swiss football star Xherdan Shaqiri is the pride of his Kosovo village.

By Milot Hasimja

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'MORE THAN A CLUB'

PEJA TO POLAND, AND BACK

Spanish history runs down the middle of the pitch.

By Gines Alarcon

While Kosovo jumps through hoops to form a national team, one star is ready to lead it.

By Cristina Mari

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FAMILY TIES The sky’s the limit for footballer brothers who have roots in Kosovo.

By Adem Ferizaj

96 UNITY IS THE GOAL Organization works across the nation to bring together children of different ethnicities via sport.

By Cristina Mari

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CONTENT KOSOVOTWOPOINTZERO MAGAZINE SPORTS - #8 SPRING 2015

4 LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

Kosovo wants to play, and the rest of the world is starting to listen.

By Besa Luci

78 LOOKING FOR A FIGHTING CHANCE

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YOUNG TRAILBLAZERS

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BY THE NUMBERS

Meet four future stars hoping to bring titles, pride to Kosovo.

By Cristina Mari We offer a graphical look at the state of sport in Kosovo.

By Kosovo 2.0

Lack of organized federations holds back Kosovo's martial artists.

By Janine Mehmeti

BREAKING DOWN BARRIERS Footballers from Kosovo are winning matches and improving attitudes abroad.

By Bekim Dalipi

104 RECREATION NATION

You don't have to be a top-level athlete to enjoy all kinds of sports in Kosovo.

By Miradije Avdimetaj and Qendresa Kallaba

51 LOOK FOR THEM IN BRAZIL

108 SURPRISE SPORTS

62 THE GAME BEFORE THE GAMES

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PARKOUR PIONEER

68 IN THE SWIM

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WINTER WONDER

Presenting the country's best bets to compete in Rio in 2016.

By Kosovo 2.0 Handball team's acceptance preceded — and may have helped procure — a spot in the Olympics.

By Samantha Freda Lum Zhaveli hopes 2016 is the year his Olympic dreams come true.

By Samantha Freda

72 FIGHTING TOWARD BRAZIL

Judo artist doesn't let setbacks crush her goldmedal hopes.

By Virtyt Gaceferri

Minigolf, frisbee and rugby are all options in Kosovo, believe it or not.

By Shpresa Frrokaj Fitim Krasniqi shows that his favorite sport has legs in Kosovo.

By Milot Hasimja Brezovica ski area has faced struggles, but its future may be in good hands.

By Milot Hasimja

116 SPORTS AND DOCS

Athletics and film go hand in hand, and these six documentaries are perfect examples.

By Kosovo 2.0

76 FROM THE COURT TO THE CLIMB

Kosovo tennis club founder uses outdoor sports, photography to spread his vision.

By Cristina Mari

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FUN FOR ALL AGES TEXT BY LEKE BERISHA / ILLUSTRATIONS BY DRITON SELMANI

THESE EIGHT NEIGHBORHOOD GAMES SHOW OFF THE CREATIVITY OF YOUTH THERE ARE LITTLE GAMES IN LIFE THAT ARE OFTEN AS UNIVERSALLY LOVED AS SPORTS. NOT ONLY DO THEY PROVIDE A GREAT OPPORTUNITY FOR EXERCISE, THEY ALSO SERVE TO BRING PEOPLE TOGETHER, SPECTATORS AND PARTICIPANTS ALIKE, THUS CREATING AN ENTERTAINING ATMOSPHERE FOR ALL. IT’S NO WONDER THEN, THAT PEOPLE HAVE STRIVED TO RE-ENACT AND IMITATE SPORTING ACTIVITIES EVEN WHEN THE NECESSARY TOOLS AND FACILITIES WERE NOT AVAILABLE.

MSHEFTAS ME TOP (BALL HIDE AND SEEK)

GUXHAS

A-BZZZ

DELET E KILLAVTA (TIRED SHEEP)

LLASTIK (RUBBER)

SHUPLAKA (SLAP)

KULLA (TOWER)

PESHQIR (TOWEL)

THE ABSENCE OF THESE FACILITIES HAS LONG BEEN A FACTOR IN KOSOVO, WHICH LED TO CHILDREN COMING UP WITH WHOLE NEW CREATIVE GAMES. WE’VE DECIDED TO ILLUSTRATE AND DESCRIBE EIGHT OF THEM TO GIVE YOU A GLIMPSE OF HOW YOUTH INVENTIVENESS THRIVES — EVEN WHEN IT’S NOT FACILITATED TO ITS FULL POTENTIAL. BUT DON’T GET ALL TEARY-EYED JUST YET, A FEW OF THEM ARE ALMOST EXCLUSIVELY ABOUT VIOLENCE! ALL IN GOOD FUN THOUGH... *Rules are subject to change depending on the neighborhood, village, city or region.

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YTYCI ENNEP L TRIT B

BY AR N BY VAN T X E T TRATIO ILLUS

er s, lay g o d Rabid og aren't se of sm to exerci cles ns obsta he Balka t in

DIET, THE ANCIENT SACRIFICE Getting fit is full of sacrifices. It always reminds me of a religious story — the parable of the lamb that Abraham sacrificed to show his devotion. Mmm, juicy, tasty lamb roasted to perfection with a side of greens. Its fatty layer melting in my mouth as I — oops, sorry. It must be my diet-induced hunger acting up again.

But, as I was saying, to gain something (or, I suppose, not gain) you will have to give up something. While experts recommend you give up bread and beer, if you can not imagine living without burek and qebapas, you can invert this concept. Just deprive yourself of the vegetables that are served as garnish — you never eat them anyway.

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MOTIVATIONAL SPACE-TIME CONTINUUM The best way to motivate yourself is through the help of friends. Find yourself a reliable friend who makes you feel good and with whom you connect. This is important, not only because they will serve as your spotter (personally, I think that safety is overrated and that the gym should be fun, and the best kind of fun is the reckless kind, when your buddy doesn’t pay attention as your arm muscles fail and you drop a dumbbell on your left foot), but also, and more importantly, to serve as a source of compliments directed toward you.

“WHEN JOINING A GYM, YOU OFTEN GET A BETTER DEAL IF YOU BRING YOUR FRIENDS. THE BEST DEALS THAT MAKE IT FEASIBLE FOR YOU TO JOIN REQUIRE YOU TO RECRUIT ABOUT 10 FRIENDS. THIS WAY, INSTEAD OF LIMITING YOURSELF TO A SINGLE, UNRELIABLE GYM BUDDY FOR YOUR MOTIVATION, YOU GET THE BENEFITS OF A TRUE GYM GANG.”

For this to be effective, you need to set a specific schedule.

The reason for this is that the Balkans are located in an area where the gravity field is the strongest in all of Europe, which makes time wrap in an unusual manner throughout this region as described by the Theory of Relativity. In physics circles, this phenomenon is known as Balkan Standard Time (BST), and causes people to chronically be late. Therefore, plan for your exercise partner to show up anytime between two and four hours before or after the initial meeting time.

GYM AS A SOCIAL NETWORK While motivations for going to the gym might vary, the main reason should not be associated with the health benefits, because they are just a by-product of the original intent — to show other people that you are going to the gym.

Just like any other social network, the pressure to show off and yell, “Look at me, I’m working out!” is irresistible. In order to achieve this, you have to dress appropriately and wear impeccable makeup, because the gym is a perfect place to increase the image of your social standing through selfies and check-ins.

Earrings, necklaces and other bulky accessories will contribute to a higher number of likes.

If you are a politician, you have an advantage with these 10-person deals, since you already come to exercise with an entourage of 10 or more bodyguards, squires and personal assistants. If you are just an average citizen, think about it as an exercise in self-esteem. Surrounded by your gym gang, you, too, could feel as powerful and important as a politician.

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AN EXISTENTIAL WARM-UP Physical inactivity makes your body tense, and the best way to loosen your muscles is through a series of warm-up and cardio exercises. While the main reason for this might appear to be health-related, its real point is to prevent you from looking uncool in the eyes of others. Just think of the embarrassment that you might go through if you have a heart attack while pulling a muscle or dislocating a shoulder from lifting a heavy weight.

TRADITIONALLY, CARDIO EXERCISES ENTAIL RUNNING AND BIKING

“IT IS WELL KNOWN THAT THE IDEA FOR ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER’S ROLE IN 'THE RUNNING MAN' WAS BASED ON MY NEIGHBOR’S EXPERIENCE OF BEING CHASED BY A HORDE OF RABID, WILD DOGS ON ONE COOL SPRING NIGHT WHEN THE MOON WAS FULL.”

In Kosovo, a biking warm-up is classified not only as an extreme sport, but also as a survival technique, as the objective is to dodge deadly cars coming at you from all directions. There is even a Hollywood film based on true events that transpired in Kosovo. Sylvester Stallone’s role in the classic action movie “Death Race 2000” was inspired by Kosovo’s lack of dedicated bike lanes.

Running and jogging in Kosovo was similarly responsible for another Hollywood blockbuster. Many attempts have been made by different administrations and political parties to change this state of affairs, but they were always repelled by the force of public opinion, which saw the lack of bike lanes and the surplus of dogs roaming at night as a great advantage. How else could we come to terms with our own inner selves? The deadly nature of these sports serves not only as a metaphor, but also as a continuous reminder of the unpredictability and constant struggle of life.

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THERMODYNAMICS OF BREATHING It is important that you breathe properly while you exercise. You have been breathing all your life, and have done so without reading a user’s manual telling you to inhale through your nose and exhale through your mouth. Be a rebel every once in a while; even try not breathing, if you feel like it. The important thing is that you also properly exercise your lungs. Increased lung capacity means more oxygen is available to help your muscles burn sugars and convert them into energy.

It’s like your body is composed of millions of tiny power plants.

once toxic substances are introduced to breathing organs, a person’s breathing rate adapts automatically to compensate for them.

Luckily, Kosovo has the best quality of polluted air in the region, thanks to its vintage coal-burning power plants. Traditional artisanal techniques are employed in the mass production of carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and all types of unclassifiable particulate matter, as well as mercury. It is as if each and every one of these molecules is personally hand crafted for your pleasure to provide you with a breathing experience full of character. It is as complex as geographically protected varieties of wine and cheese.

It is a big misconception that you need clean air for staying fit. Recent studies sponsored by the Consortium for Clean Coal Technology have offered new insight into ways to increase lung capacity; research shows that

WEIGHT LIFTING TELEKINESIS In order to sculpt your upper body, you must first work on your legs. It might seem a bit counterintuitive, but it is important because exercising your lower body will help you stand better and more firmly, therefore making you able to lift heavier weights. The best way to do this on a low budget is if you have a broken elevator in your apartment building. Climbing the steps all the way to your floor achieves the same results as an expensive StairMaster.

weights have to be physical.

The latest research shows that mental weightlifting is better for your health. People’s lives are full of problems, from intrigues with friends or family to problems with unpaid bills, or perhaps worrying that your preferred sport has not been recognized by whatever international organization is in charge of it.

All that burden that you carry on your back is good for building your muscles.

One of the classic misconceptions that a fitness novice makes is thinking that in order to build muscles, you have to physically lift heavy weights.

Actually, you can lift lighter weights and do more repetitions. Another misconception is that these

Once the problem is solved and the weight is lifted, it is recommended you find another problem to preoccupy yourself with; Kosovo sure has an abundance of them.

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THE IMPORTANCE OF HYDRATION

IT IS IMPORTANT TO DRINK A LOT OF WATER WHILE YOU EXERCISE.

t. ine. i s ’ t Tha punchl No

THE IMPORTANCE OF REST AND RECUPERATION

Kosovo’s competitive resting team is still not allowed to play in tournaments because of the fierce lobbying blockade from Serbia’s side.

Kosovo’s team was awarded a provisional acceptance into the Federation of Competitive Resting only a year ago, and is allowed to play only friendly games. According to Kosovo’s Ministry of Sports, its athletes are expected to gain full membership soon and start winning championships through a home-grown technique of frequent cigarette and coffee breaks. — K

One of the most overlooked elements of a successful exercise routine has nothing to do with exercise itself, but rather with the lack thereof. In order for your body to obtain all of the advantages of driving its muscles to the brink of destruction, it is essential to give them ample time to rebuild through frequent breaks and rest.

Artrit Bytyci is from Prishtina and Prizren, currently pursuing

It could be said that resting is a national sport in the Balkans. Currently, Montenegro holds the gold medal in the sport of resting. Its olympic competitor won by a slim margin in a finals contest when he woke from a deep sleep and announced that he needed to take a seat and rest a little.

an MFA in Creative Writing at The New School in New York City with a background in biological sciences as well. Artrit tries to eat healthy and exercise at least three times a week at his neighborhood gym in Queens. To date, all such attempts have given inconclusive results.

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HOOLIGANS AND THE BLAME GAME 14

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Balkan football fanatics get a bad rap, but the real troublemakers may live in palaces

to the Serbian variant.

It has been said that hooliganism in the Balkans is special because of the war and the roles played by football fans themselves on the battlefield, as if a Delije from Red Star enrolled in Arkan’s Tigers and a Maniac from Zeljeznicar Sarajevo enrolled to defend his besieged city were the same thing. As such, the question of whether all of them should be called hooligans is debatable.

TEXT BY LOIC TREGOURES / ILLUSTRATION BY VAN LENNEP

FOOTBALL AND WAR — ON OCT. 24, A LANDMARK EUROPEAN qualifying match was held in Belgrade. The two teams? Serbia and Albania — a situation that was historically and politically tense for obvious reasons, and one that saw Serbian officials take unforeseen measures (such as preventing Albanian fans from attending) to control the fans. The game (and what happened during that game) triggered two kinds of comments. First, in the European press — in Italy’s Gazzetta dello Sport, for instance — it was argued that UEFA should never have allowed Albania and Serbia to play each other, given the political situation in Kosovo. And second, within the region and among Serbs and Albanians, and especially on social networks, even many reasonable people wrote xenophobic and extreme comments that were driven by emotions and chauvinism.

That this second type of comment proved so common came as no surprise, and would have happened anyway had the game been played through (depending on who the winner would have been). However, the way this situation was treated abroad shows evidence that what Bulgarian historian, philosopher and “Imagining The Balkans” author Maria Todorova has called “Balkanism” — or the collection of negative clichés that Western audiences associate with the Balkans in place of rational thought — is still prevalent.

Comparisons with the famous game between Dinamo Zagreb and Red Star Belgrade — two top-scoring teams from the Yugoslav era — from May 1990 rose again. In this way, the international press, through its laziness and ignorance, fell into the same trap that it did 20 years ago when it substituted symbols for politics in order to explain the wars of the former Yugoslavia.

No one noticed that a similar incident occurred in France in the same week as the ill-fated match in Belgrade. No one noticed that neo-Nazi hooligans gathered in Cologne, Germany, and fought the police. Noticing these things would have produced a degree of cognitive dissonance, given the strength of the “Balkanism” belief: Only in the barbaric Balkans this can happen.

There is no such thing as “Balkan hooliganism,” just as there is no such thing as Homo Balkanicus. Hooliganism is a social phenomenon known all over Europe, even in quiet Sweden. It is nonetheless true that some sociological similarities can be raised between certain countries — but looked at in this light, Croatian hooliganism seems closer to Polish hooliganism than

The role football played before and during the wars in Yugoslavia is the result of two key factors. The first one is the export, at that time, of new and extreme models of fandom — namely, the Italian ultra model and the English hooligan model. Most football fan groups that were involved in the wars of the former Yugoslavia were formed and became strong in the ’80s. The second factor is the very specific political, economic and social context that made such wars first thinkable and then possible.

Laura Silber and Allan Little — the authors of “Yugoslavia: Death of a Nation” — have showed evidence that the breakup of Yugoslavia was the result of a political and criminal project from the top (politicians, intellectuals and churches, mainly), rather than the result of ancient hatreds at the bottom. In that situation, football obviously played a part. Football fans were and are responsible for spreading hate and trivializing violence toward the dehumanized “other,” making it attractive to hundreds of young men and boys who were willing to show off their masculinity in a collapsing country where going to war and using violence was seen as sexy (as anthropologist Ivan Colovic showed in his analyses of Serbian political symbolism).

However, putting the responsibility for the war on to football hooligans makes absolutely no sense. The people who kill, rape and torture on the field are not more responsible than the masterminds of this disaster in their presidential palaces.

No one ever wondered why the usual fights between Czech and Slovak hooligans, or between Ukrainians and Russians in the late ’80s, never ended in a real war. All in all, those cases demonstrate the political plasticity of football and sport in

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— There is no such thing as “Balkan hooliganism,” just as there is no such thing as Homo Balkanicus.

Hooliganism is a social phenomenon known all over Europe, even in quiet Sweden. #8 SPORTS SPRING 2015

THE FOOTBALL STADIUM IS A PLACE IN WHICH RITUALS OF NATIONALISM AND MILITANCY ARE CARRIED OUT IN A CONTROLLED MANNER. PHOTO: JOVICA NIKOLIC

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general (as noted by sociologist Richard Giulianotti), and demonstrates the extent to which focusing on hooligans in a special game between Dinamo and Red Star in order to explain the war doesn’t make sense.

It is all the more true that, if fights were to happen today between Croat, Serb, Bosnian and Albanian hooligans, there would be no serious political consequences (let alone an armed conf lict). That Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama postponed his visit to Serbia for few weeks in order to give time for things to calm down was a smart move and doesn’t mean that relations between Serbia and Albania seriously deteriorated after the game.

ALTHOUGH SECURITY ISSUES ARE HARDLY UNIQUE TO BALKAN FOOTBALL MATCHES, THE VIOLENCE AT THE SERBIA-ALBANIA MATCH WAS EXCESSIVE. PHOTO: JOVICA NIKOLIC

AN 'IMAGINED COMMUNITY' Nevertheless, there remains the question of why football can sometimes trigger so much xenophobia and inf lamed commentary. Obviously, this is not (as some Albanians emphasized after the game) specific to Serbia. The reason for this is twofold. First, sport is the best way to make real what Benedict Anderson calls an “imagined community” as a belief, a nation has to be embodied to be real. This can be an athlete’s role, especially in collective sports. What football players like Lorik Cana (Albania), Miralem Pjanic (Bosnia and Herzegovina) and Slaven Bilic (Croatia) have said about the meaning of wearing the national team jersey is enough to be convinced of the symbolic power of sport as a tool for public recognition. If it was not so, then why would Kosovo spend so much energy on becoming a member of international sporting federations?

Second, it must be acknowledged that nationalism is still the dominant political paradigm in the region. Efforts toward mutual understanding, not to mention justice and reconciliation, are the minority. This is because the nationalist paradigm has been widely accepted, not only in the region, but also among the international community (which, from the very beginning and until the Dayton Peace Agreement in Bosnia and Herzegovina, de facto and then de jure accepted the logic of ethnic division, narrowing people down to their ethnicities whether they wanted it or not).

This context — one that fuelled divisions and hate through nationalism — happened to assert itself as “the winner” after the wars. Hence their interests demand that they keep playing the nationalist card in order to maintain their power. This situation is very obvious in Bosnia and Herzegovina, but let’s keep in mind who is ruling Serbia and Kosovo now, where they were during the ’90s and what kind of networks they are connected to. Serbian prime minister Aleksandar Vucic is a “former nationalist” and Milosevic-era information minister; foreign affairs minister Ivica Dacic was Milosevic’s successor as Socialist party president; and former prime minister of Kosovo Hashim Thaci is a former KLA commander who has been linked to (though never indicted for) organized crime and war crimes.

— No one ever wondered why the usual fights between Czech and Slovak hooligans, or between Ukrainians and Russians in the late ’80s, never ended in a real war. All in all, those cases demonstrate the political plasticity of football and sport in general.

DICK ADVOCAAT, THE COACH OF SERBIA’S NATIONAL FOOTBALL TEAM, AT THE ALBANIA-SERBIA EUROPEAN QUALIFYING MATCH IN BELGRADE. PHOTO: JOVICA NIKOLIC

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Therefore, if children are taught at school and at home — even 15 to 20 years after the wars — that this or that community embodies “the enemy” and should be scorned, then it comes as absolutely no surprise that young boys would go to stadiums and sing “Kill the Albanians” or “Kill the Serbs.” As long as the system itself doesn’t turn the “other” into an alter ego rather than a non-human enemy, the nationalist paradigm will remain the useful political crutch of illiberal and corrupt “constrained democracies” (as Florian Bieber says).

In this context, something has to be understood: it is because some societies and countries still live under a nationalist paradigm that football games often turn into a proxy war (sometimes with real fights) and not the other way around.

What is happening in Hungary, and what happened during the two last Hungary-Romania games, is evidence of that.

A CONVENIENT DISTRACTION Stadiums are places in which nationalist hatred is still allowed to be celebrated in the frame of what Norbert Elias called a “controlled decontrolling of emotions.” This is not because it isn’t allowed to exist elsewhere, but because stadiums are places in which social control is less powerful, and a government can hardly be blamed for what is sung in such a place (contrary to street demonstrations, for example). As long as the crowd is singing to kill the “other,” it will not sing to ask its own politicians why unemployment and poverty are booming, and why press and democratic freedoms are moving backward.

Thus, as a paradigm, nationalism enables politicians to rule a country by manipulating symbols and emotions rather than politics and concrete results. To that extent, even though they may have their own sincere nationalist agenda and may disagree with politicians in power, hooligans and far-right activists play the role of their useful idiots.

However, escaping a nationalist paradigm will not make hooliganism disappear since it is a very complex, multiplecause social phenomenon that has been sociologically and anthropologically debated for more than 30 years. There are serious problems with hooliganism in Sweden, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland — which is only to mention Western countries. Besides, fights usually take place between rivals from the same country, namely fans from Red Star against fans from Partizan, or fans from Dinamo Zagreb against fans from Hajduk Split.

Still, nationalism as a political paradigm — that is, as the intellectual framework through which everything is viewed — doesn’t help football stay out of politics. When France played Germany in the most recent World Cup, nobody in France was thinking of their century of wars against the Germans; nobody saw that game as a proxy war, but rather held in mind the 1982 World Cup semifinal in which France had so unfairly lost.

So should the answer to such politically risky games consist of impeding the two countries from playing against each other?

HOOLIGANISM HAS ENTERED THE ICONOGRAPHY OF FOOTBALL ACROSS EUROPE. PICTURED ON THE GRAFFITI IS ZVONIMIR BOBAN, FORMER CAPTAIN OF CROATIAN TEAM DINAMO ZAGREB, KICKING A SERBIAN POLICEMAN DURING THE 1991 MATCH BETWEEN DINAMO ZAGREB AND CRVENA ZVEZDA. PHOTO: DRAGO SOPTA

This would mean giving the point to a nationalist point of view in which the “other” can only be an enemy with whom you can’t play, the same way the international community accepted this paradigm 20 years ago, killing any move toward civil and civic democratic movement, freezing and eventually legitimizing ethnic-cleansed territories in the whole region.

Last year, Croatia and Serbia played against each other. In this circumstance, cooperation between football federations, police and both governments became something essential and efficient for everything to go well in Zagreb and Belgrade. Of course, away fans were forbidden according to an agreement between both football associations and UEFA (an agreement that the Serbia-Albania case notably lacked), and this will most likely be the case in the near future.

It is not a panacea, but it remains an acceptable solution so that sport doesn’t completely lose to politics. It is not UEFA’s prerogative to have its football agenda dictated by politics and nationalism. If it were, then dozens of games would be forbidden, and neither the political nor the hooliganism problems would be solved. In fact, they would be worsened. — K Loic Tregoures is a PhD candidate and lecturer at University of Lille in France. His PhD thesis concerns the connections between politics, identity matters and football in the post-Yugoslav region. In the past he has written about sports in Eastern Europe for Eurosport, So Foot and Le Courrier des Balkans.

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THE SPRING CROSS OF THE KOSOVO ATHLETIC FEDERATION IN THE VILLAGE OF ROGANE IN THE KAMENICA MUNICIPALITY IN MARCH 1996.

FLASHBACK IN PHOTOS SPORTS IN KOSOVO TOOK A STEP BACK IN THE '90S, BUT ONE MAN'S CAMERA KEPT THE SCENE FROM GOING DARK TEXT BY KOSOVO 2.0 / PHOTOS BY GANI KOSUMI

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➳

W

hen it comes to Kosovo sports journalism, hearing the name Gani Kosumi is inevitable. The current radio sports editor for the public Radio Television of Kosovo, Kosumi has 35 years of sports journalism behind him. This longevity has made him not only a witness of political and social perspectives of sports and the journalism behind it — it has also landed him the nickname “the gallery of Kosovo sports.”

His career began as an aspiring journalist while attending his studies at the University of Prishtina, Faculty of Philology Department of Literature in the early 1980s. Noticing his passion, Kosumi’s professors would often buy the daily newspapers for him so that he could browse the sports section. Soon after, he became a regular reporter for the university’s newspaper, Bota e Re, mostly covering university matches.

By 1981, he moved onto radio journalism, covering sports for Radio Prishtina.

But it was not until 10 years later, in 1991, that Kosumi’s frame of reference to the world of sports would grow. His brother, who was living in the UK at the time, sent Kosumi a camera. It was an Olympus, and it was distinguished by exceptionally good lenses that produced very sharp images; it was largely considered the “it” camera of the time. It might have been a mere coincidence that the camera landed in his hands, but for Kosumi it became much more than a hobby.

Until that point, Kosumi had been covering Kosovo sports through writing and radio storytelling. Now the camera would become his work companion as he began traveling across Kosovo to games and matches. This led to his remarkable collection of work, particularly his documentation of Kosovo sports during the 1990s.

As the wars began unraveling in what was then Yugoslavia in the early 1990s, the Serbian regime had banned Kosovar Albanians from participating in public life. Public spaces in cities across Kosovo were ethnically divided; Albanian state employees in public institutions were forced to leave their positions; Albanian media outlets were either closed down or under constant threat.

Sports in Kosovo faced the same reality — but they did not cease to exist. They began organizing in school facilities that were still

THE SELECTION MATCH FOR THE KOSOVO A AND B REPRESENTATIONS OF HANDBALL. UNTIL JUNE 1999, ALL HANDBALL GAMES WERE HELD IN OPEN AREAS, AS SEEN HERE IN THE GERMIA PARK IN PRISHTINA.

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MEMBERS OF THE KOSOVO SKIING FEDERATION IN FEBRUARY 1997 IN PREVALLA COMPETE IN THE SLALOM AND GREAT SLALOM.

AFTER A FOOTBALL MATCH OF THE KOSOVO CHAMPIONSHIP IN THE VILLAGE OF LLUKAR IN MARCH 1997, KOSOVO ALBANIAN FOOTBALL PLAYERS WASH IN A RIVER BEFORE HEADING BACK HOME.

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SPRING CROSS 1997 HELD IN KARACEVA VILLAGE, IN KAMENICA, ORGANIZED BY THE KOSOVO ATHLETIC FEDERATION.

EROLL SALIHU (LEFT), AFRIM TOVERLANI (CENTER) AND ARBNOR MORINA (RIGHT), PLAYERS WITH THE PRISHTINA FOOTBALL CLUB, CELEBRATE AFTER BECOMING 1996-97 KOSOVO CHAMPIONS, IN LLUKAR, PRISHTINA.

ON AUG. 27, 1999, THE FAMOUS BRAZILIAN FOOTBALLER RONALDO VISITED KOSOVO WHILE DOING CHARITY WORK. DURING A NEWS CONFERENCE AT THE PRISHTINA AIRPORT, HE COMMITTED TO DONATING $3,000 FOR THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL MUSTAFA BAKIA IN GJAKOVA.

THE PERLEPNICA-GJAKOVA FOOTBALL MATCH, PART OF LEAGUE 2, FINISHED WITH A 6-2 SCORE IN PERLEPNICA ON OCT. 22, 1997.

IN THE VILLAGE OF DUMNICA, LLAPI AREA, A FOOTBALL PLAYER IS SEEN AFTER A MATCH IN 1997.

PRISHTINA ELEMENTARY AND HIGH SCHOOL CROSS COMPETITION, 1996.

EUROPEAN CHAMPION AFRIM LATIFI, RIGHT, FIGHTS BLERIM KELMENDI IN THE KOSOVO MARTIAL ARTS CHAMPIONSHIP IN BRESALC ON JULY 24, 1997. LATIFI WON THE MATCH AND BECAME KOSOVO CHAMPION.

PROFESSOR ARSIM FEHMIU, ON BEHALF OF THE KOSOVO FOOTBALL FEDERATION, GIVES THE CHAMPIONSHIP TROPHY AFTER A FOOTBALL TOURNAMENT TO GJAKOVA CAPTAIN BEDREDIN GJINALI, WHO IS CURRENTLY THE FOOTBALL COACH OF KF LIRIA OF PRIZREN. THE TOURNAMENT FEATURED THE REGIONS OF PRISHITNA, MITROVICA, GJAKOVA AND FERIZAJ.

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THE CROSS COMPLETION IN KARACEVA, KAMENICA, 1997.

open, though rundown, as well as in parks and fields throughout Kosovo. A variety of sports continued to live, such as football, karate, handball, table tennis, skiing and chess. Kosumi ensured that sports journalism persevered as well.

“People hesitated to have cameras at the time,” he says. “I took a risk.”

He remembers one significant incident in 1995, when the Independent Association of Kosovo Sports had organized an award ceremony for athletes of the year in a restaurant in Fushe Kosova. Participants would often organize car-pooling amongst each other and split the price of gas to travel — whether it be to events or matches themselves, which would gather up to 6,000 spectators.

On that particular day, however, a group of 40 armed Serbian police officers barged into the venue halfway through the ceremony and confiscated all the awards. Kosumi recalls that 24 people were arrested, including himself, and kept in the police station in Prishtina for four hours.

Because Kosumi was also covering Kosovar sports through the public Radio Television of Albania at the time, he made sure that the story went on the air.“Through that small 15-minute window that we had [in Radio Television of Albania], people here and in the diaspora were informed about what was happening in Kosovo regarding sports.”

Whether reporting for the radio or writing the results of games, today it is Kosumi’s photos that best document the difficult conditions in which sports were organized, and illustrate equally the will and determination of the people in them.

So it is precisely this documentation throughout the 1990s that lent him the nickname “the gallery of Kosovo sports” — and that is no understatement. Kosumi has around 8,000 photographs, all stored in albums in his house in Prishtina. On top of that, Kosumi also has about 300 to 400 films that he has not yet been able to digitize. The photographs featured here offer insight through Kosumi’s camera into the world of sports in Kosovo during the 1990s. — K

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Recognition, one match at a time Acceptance on international sporting stages can help forge Kosovo’s national identity TEXT BY JAMES MONTAGUE / PHOTO BY ATDHE MULLA

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KOSOVO’S NATIONAL TEAM MAY LACK INTERNATIONAL RECOGNITION, BUT IT DOES NOT LACK FAN SUPPORT.

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— EROLLD BELEGU RECEIVED THE BAD NEWS, by text, at the most inopportune time.

It was 2008 and the president of Kosovo’s basketball federation — attending a conference in Cardiff called Regional Sport, International Participation — had just hauled his powerful frame on to the stage. He was about to wax lyrical about how sport could heal divisions in post-conflict societies and how sport could triumph where politics failed. Suddenly, however, it seemed that his heart wasn’t it.

“I had just heard the news that FIBA [basketball’s world governing body] has rejected our membership again at their central board meeting,” he explained, shrugging as if to suggest he wasn’t that surprised. “Now this is becoming purely political. [People who say] sport and politics don’t mix are kids.”

In a way, Belegu was right — but perhaps not in the way that he intended. Sporting recognition is intensely political, which is why last year’s decision by the International Olympic Committee to admit Kosovo as a member was met with street parties, approval and condemnation far outside the boundaries of the sporting world.

“Kosovars are celebrating probably the most important day since the declaration of independence,” Kosovo’s deputy foreign minister Petrit Selimi said after December’s decision.

“Modern nations aren’t just about the EU, Council of Europe and the UN. They are also about forging modern identities, and having an Olympics team is as much a marker of national identity and pride.”

Serbia’s minister for sport, three-time Olympic water polo medal winner Vanja Udovicic, was less enthused, and condemned the decision. “As a sports minister, I maintain the decision is not good, primarily for international sports, because it gives room for future precedents that could jeopardize world sports,” he said in a statement. “What are the motives to make such a decision and grant full membership to a so-called state, not recognized by the United Nations?”

Since the end of the Kosovo War in 1999, it is not just Kosovo’s political institutions that have been fighting for recognition. Despite being recognized by over 100 UN members and 23 out of 28 European Union states, full United Nations membership remains elusive. Serbia views Kosovo as a historic and intrinsic part of the Serbian state, as does its ally Russia (which has a veto at the UN Security Council). During a recent visit to Belgrade, Russian President Vladimir Putin stated that Russia would “never” recognize Kosovo. But there has been much more progress in the recognition of sports federations, from soccer to basketball, swimming to athletics.

Without the recognition of international sporting bodies, participation in major international events like the Summer and Winter Olympic Games or the soccer World Cup finals are impossible. But recognition at these events carries tremendous power, representing acceptance in the wider world, the status of being a country with with a flag and an anthem, alongside other states.

—“I had just heard the news that FIBA [basketball’s world governing body] has rejected our membership again ENCOUNTERING OBSTACLES at their central confers international legitimacy, which is one reason Belegu cited as to why Koboard meeting,” he Membership sovo’s bid to join FIBA failed. “The former secretary general [Borislav Stankovic] is Serb, he was explained, secretary general for more than 25 years,” he said after his speech back in 2008. “In many FIBA structures in leading places there are Serbs. I think it’s not that FIBA doesn’t want us, it is that shrugging as if to they cannot bring themselves to break the hearts of their Serb friends.” suggest he wasn’t FIBA denied that this was the reason for their decision. “Actually, the decision from the central board was basically that there was no new progress from our decision in April 2008,” that surprised. explained then-FIBA spokesman Marcos Beltra. “There are some pending issues with the bas“Now this is ketball federation … but the main one is that that it has to be recognized by the IOC and the becoming purely UN.” As Petrit Selimi admitted, for many new or fledgling states, sporting recognition is as important as representation on major international bodies. Former US Secretary of State Henry political. [People once said that a country needs three things to be classed as such: a currency, an army who say] sport and Kissinger and a national soccer team.

For the Palestinians, who have long endured limited international recognition, sport has politics don’t mix provided a platform where political solutions have failed. Both the International Olympic Com- ➳ are kids.”

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ONE DAY BEFORE THE FOOTBALL GAME AGAINST HAITI, KOSOVO’S FIRST FIFA-SANCTIONED FRIENDLY MATCH, KOSOVO’S NATIONAL TEAM PRACTICES UNDER THE GRAY SKIES OF OBILIC IN THE KEK STADIUM.

KOSOVO’S TEAM IS COACHED BY ALBERT BUNJAKI, FORMERLY OF KALMAR FF IN SWEDEN. PHOTO: KUSHTRIM TERNAVA

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KOSOVO SUPPORTERS BRAVE THE ELEMENTS TO WATCH THEIR NATIONAL TEAM COMPETE IN ITS FIRST FIFA-SANCTIONED FRIENDLY GAME AGAINST HAITI, MARCH 2014. PHOTO: ATDHE MULLA

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— “Without the recognition of international sporting bodies, participation in major international events like the Summer and Winter Olympic Games or the soccer World Cup finals are impossible.

But recognition at these events carries tremendous power, representing acceptance in the wider world, the status of being a country with with a flag and an anthem, alongside other states.”

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mittee and FIFA, soccer’s global governing body, have recognized Palestine, allowing it to compete in the Olympic Games and in qualification for the World Cup finals. Earlier this year, Palestine qualified for the Asian Cup, Asia’s equivalent of the European Championships. International sport allows a territory or country to wave its flag on the international stage. When South Sudan was granted independence, its first act of celebration, on the very first day of independence, was a match for the brand new South Sudan football team.

Other disputed territories have tried to do the same: The Kurds in northern Iraq have their own national football team, as do Nagorno-Karabakh and South Ossetia. In fact, as the 2014 World Cup began, a World Cup for unrecognized nations took place in Sweden. Kurdistan appeared, as did Abkhazia. All of these would-be nations hope that recognition through football will lend legitimacy to their claims of statehood. Sport in general, and soccer in particular, offers a back door toward official recognition.

The most famous success is that of Gibraltar. The tiny overseas British territory on the Iberian peninsula was ceded to the British by the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713, but the Spanish still claim it as their own. So when Gibraltar attempted to join UEFA, European soccer’s governing body, in 1993, the Spanish were livid. By the time a decision was to be made, Spain threatened to pull all its teams, both club and national, out of continental and international competitions in protest. UEFA and FIFA, terrified of losing revenue and prestige from an absent Real Madrid and Barcelona, pored over the original treaty looking for loopholes to stop Gibraltar joining. In the end, the rules were changed: UEFA decided that only UN-recognized states could join – the current stumbling block for Kosovo’s recognition.

FIRST STEPS

— “I feel great because we struggled to have this opportunity to show the world we have a tradition in football,” said Eroll Salihu, the general secretary of the Football Federation of Kosovo, as he watched the team train pitch-side. “It will be the first step for recognition of football.”

While it is clear that Serbia and Russia have opposed Kosovo’s recognition within sporting federations, the Gibraltar situation also highlights the other states that have historically opposed recognizing Kosovo for fear of setting a precedent that might agitate separatist regions within their own borders. Soccer is a case in point. In the winter of 2014, under black clouds and in the shadow of ancient smokestacks pumping acrid yellow plumes into the sky, a group of young men in blue tracksuits met on a soccer pitch for the first time. The players of Kosovo’s national soccer team ran around the pitch of the decrepit KEK stadium in the town of Obilic — a town dominated by Kosovo’s two largest power stations, which, according to the World Bank, represent the “worst single-point source of pollution in Europe” — as a crowd of a few hundred clapped and cheered every time they passed.

In two days’ time, the players would pass an important milestone in Kosovo’s recent history.

After years of politics, fighting, failure, fraught negotiation and finally a tentative agreement, Kosovo was about to play its first FIFA-approved match, a friendly against Haiti.

“I feel great because we struggled to have this opportunity to show the world we have a tradition in football,” said Eroll Salihu, the general secretary of the Football Federation of Kosovo, as he watched the team train pitch-side. “It will be the first step for recognition of football.”

Since 2008, the Futball Federation of Kosovo, FFK, has been pushing for recognition by UEFA and FIFA, which has proved to be a politically explosive issue. The lack of recognition has also had a devastating effect on sport in Kosovo — and nowhere is that more evident than in football. Hundreds of thousands of refugees fled the war 15 years ago, spreading across Europe to Sweden, Norway, Belgium, Switzerland and other places. Despite Kosovo producing an inordinate amount of talented players — Xherdan Shaqiri, Lorik Cana, Granit Xhaka, Valon Behrami and Adnan Januzai were all either born in Kosovo or have Kosovar parents — the lack of a recognized national team meant that many of those players ended up representing the countries they settled in. Most tellingly, Switzerland easily qualified for the 2014 World Cup finals with a core of Kosovar players.

There seemed little chance that Kosovo would be recognized by UEFA and FIFA, but when Sepp Blatter, president of FIFA, backed calls for Kosovo to be allowed to play friendlies in 2012, it reignited the issue, angering the Serbs and worrying the Swiss (who feared they may lose their best players if a Kosovo team was recognized). Secretary General of FFK Eroll Salihu and FFK

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president Fadil Vokrri embarked on an audacious operation to gather the signatures of Shaqiri, Cana and others for a petition calling for Kosovo to be allowed the right to play friendlies before Switzerland played Albania in a World Cup qualifier in October 2012. It was a symbolic match, as nine of the 22 players during that game had Kosovar roots. Salihu and Vokrri sat with the Swiss national team players in their hotel outside Zurich and watched as Shaqiri, Xhaka and Behrami all signed the petition.

Back on the pitch in Obilic, Salihu was breathing in the sulphur-laden air as the Kosovar players who were chosen spoke with Swedish, Norwegian and German accents. Among them was Palermo goalkeeper Samir Ujkani (who was in goal for Albania in that match against Switzerland 18 months ago), Norway’s Ardian Gashi and Swiss international striker Albert Bunjaku, who played in the 2010 World Cup finals.

“My parents were born here, I was born here, all my family was born here, so it was 100 percent that I came here to play,” said Bunjaku. Like almost every player there, he had to constantly answer questions about his loyalties back in the country he settled in. “I was 6 when I went to Switzerland,” he said when asked about his relationship with Switzerland. “I am very grateful for what Switzerland did. When [then-Switzerland national coach] Ottmar Hitzfeld called me, it was great. It was unbelievable. I can’t explain with words. But this is my country.

I see myself as Kosovan.”

Although coach Albert Bunjaki (no relation) chose a team of players from around Europe, the difficulty lay in building a team ethic. Trips were arranged to famous monuments and the house of a Kosovo war hero. Before the game, Kosovo’s prime minister and president both met the team, too. “These people fought for Kosovo just as we are fighting for Kosovo on the field.

We are warriors as well, just in a different way,” Albert Bunjaki explained. “Some of the players are born in Sweden, Germany. It’s good they learn the history of Kosovo.”

—The issue of Kosovo’s Serbs had been a vexing one for the FFK.They had hoped to call up a Kosovar Serb player to the team, but that was a bridge too far.

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UNHAPPY NEIGHBORS

Of course, not everyone was happy that Kosovo was playing its first FIFA-approved friendly match, especially as the northern city of Mitrovica had been chosen to host it. Mitrovica remains a divided city. It is here that most of Kosovo’s Serbian minority, who make up 5 percent of Kosovo’s population, still live. A river bisects the city, with the Serbs in the north and Kosovar Albanians in the south. The bridge that links the two is full of rubble and guarded by a cohort of Italian Carabinieri. Crossing north, the walls are covered in anti-EU graffiti. Serbian flags fly from most buildings. The Serbian dinar is the currency of choice and the northern population vote in Serbian elections.

A few miles north of the bridge, Igor Uljarevic was standing on the pitch of a dishevelled, covered training complex. Electrical wires hung down onto the pitch as rain fell through the tears in the fabric. The 35-year-old is a coach and striker for FK Partizan Kosovska Mitrovica, who play in the Serbian fourth tier. Before the war, they used to play in what is now known as the Adem Jashari stadium in the south, where Kosovo’s first match was due to be played in a few hours’ time. But no one goes south anymore. “We don’t care about it,” Uljarevic explained.

“We have our side, our team. We don’t care about the game and no one will watch the game. [It’s a] provocation and we don’t support that.

We don’t want to know anything about that match.”

The issue of Kosovo’s Serbs had been a vexing one for the FFK. They had hoped to call up a Kosovar Serb player to the team, but that was a bridge too far. “If a Serbian plays in that, the [Kosovo] team has all the support of Europe,” said Uljarevic, who believes the move was just a PR exercise. “They can say ‘Look, we have Serbian players here, we saw it on television that Serbian players play in Kosovo.’ But that is not good for us.”

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STAR JUDOKA MAJLINDA KELMENDI READIES HERSELF FOR TRAINING PHOTO: ATDHE MULLA

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As kickoff approached in Mitrovica, the roads leading to the stadium were full of flags and song; flags of Kosovo, Albania, the US and the European Union. On the stadium’s flagpoles flew the standards of Haiti and FIFA, but nothing from Kosovo, as agreed with UEFA. The stands, though, were full of flags from every corner of Kosovo. Some anti-Serbian chanting could be heard, as well. But no national anthem was sung. More than 17,000 people jammed into the stadium as the rain fell on the uncovered crowds. The match would end in a 0-0 draw, played on an awful, waterlogged pitch.

The crowds left the stadium happy that they had seen history being made, even if they would have to wait for Kosovo’s first FIFA-sanctioned victory. “We have waited all of our lives for this game. We have seen history today,” said Mohamed Vokrri, a supporter who had queued for hours to get a ticket.

In September, Kosovo enjoyed its first friendly-match vicFANS CELEBRATE AT KOSOVO’S FIRST FIFAtory, but the road to full FIFA membership remains long.

SANCTIONED FRIENDLY AGAINST HAITI IN MARCH 2014. PHOTO: ATDHE MULLA

BRING ON BRAZIL

By the end of 2014, Kosovo’s provisional IOC membership and the prospect of competition at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics raised the cause of full international recognition to a new level. At the House of Sports in the center of Prishtina, the president of Kosovo’s National Olympic Committee is preparing to leave for France. It is December 2014 and the IOC is about to vote to ratify Kosovo’s full membership in Monaco.

“The recognition, even this provisional membership, was historic,” said Besim Hasani. His office is small, but next door two chairs and a table are positioned in front of the Olympic rings mounted on the wall, designed for photo opportunities with visiting dignitaries. “It will be once again historic when the IOC grants full recognition to our National Olympic Committee,” he added.

Hasani had no doubt that the IOC would ratify the move.

There was concern that some last-minute political maneuvering might sink it. “I think by participating in the Olympic Games, you are watched by 5 billion people,” Hasani said. “I think it will have an effect in all the other areas when they hear about Kosovo.” The move would benefit the athletes most, he explained, who wouldn’t just be going to wave a flag.

“We’ll see Kosovo not only during the Olympic ceremony but also the winning ceremony,” he said. “I am 100 percent sure that if God sent Majlinda Kelmendi, and she will not be injured, I guarantee she will be an Olympic medalist.”

The day before the vote, at the Tony Kuka Judo School in Peja, the 23-year-old Kelmendi is training in a blue uniform with a Kosovar flag stitched above her left breast. She is one of the best Judo fighters — or judokas — in the world; a double world champion in the 52kg weight division. “More than any other athlete, I have that feeling of being ignored or not the same as other athletes in the world,” Kelmendi said in between bouts. She has already competed at one Olympic games: London 2012, but under the Albanian flag. “I was not allowed to have my flag or my anthem,” she said of her short appearance in London. “I’m happy it will not happen again.

We will be the same as every athlete in the world.”

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The International Judo Federation is one of the few to recognize Kosovo, but when Kelmendi went to the 2014 World Championships in Chelyabinsk, Russia, to defend her title, the old problems arose.

She was informed that she would compete under the IJF flag and hear the Olympic anthem if she won a medal. “It was a big surprise for us,” said Kelmendi. “I went there to represent my country and I was not allowed.” Putin is himself an eighth dan in Judo, an honorary member of the IJF and the author of a bestselling Russian book on the sport. He attended the final day of competition. “It makes me angry inside, not scared,” she said. “I wanted to prove that even if I’m not representing my country, I’m the best in the world.” Kelmendi easily retained her title in the final.

“I think the KGB were following me,” laughed Driton Kuka, Kelmendi’s coach. He recalled how both judokas were searched before they went out to compete. Kuka was himself once a promising fighter, a champion in the former Yugoslavia and seemingly destined for a medal at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. But the rising tensions that led to the Yugoslav civil war meant that the country’s Kosovar athletes boycotted all international competition “to let the international community know that we are living like the people of the second hand, as they say,” he explained. His two houses were destroyed during the later Kosovo War, but his half-built judo school survived. “Our dojo was a bit lucky,” he said. “It was not finished. It was just the walls. They couldn’t burn it down.”

Although he never had the chance to fight for an Olympic medal, coaching Kelmendi has given him the chance to relive the dream he sacrificed over 20 years ago. “When I look at Majlinda in competition, I see myself, to continue that what I stopped because of politics and the war,” he said. “If we get an Olympic medal, [and] the next day my life will be finished, this is OK. It is my goal in life.”

TENSIONS EASING?

The next day, on Dec. 9, 2014, the IOC voted to ratify Kosovo’s full membership. “This is the beginning of a new era for the Olympic movement in Kosovo,” Hasani told the IOC assembly. Last year saw the most progress made in sporting international recognition than all the years combined since 1999.

That is partly down to the efficient campaigning of the Kosovo National Olympic Committee and the Football Federation of Kosovo. But it could also be because of a shift in attitudes in Serbia. Despite angry words from the Serbian foreign and sports ministers, neither move could have happened without at least some cooperation from Serbian institutions.

“Yes, of course, because we have to be part of the society,” said Vlade Divac, an Olympic medalist and former NBA basketball player who is now head of the Serbian National Olympic Committee, in an interview with Reuters when asked whether he backed Kosovo’s IOC membership. “Personally, I had a similar situation when we [Yugoslavia] were banned from competing in the 1992 Olympics, so I insist that we look at this issue with sporting eyes and let the politicians do their job.”

The Serbian Football Association had also stepped away from confrontation on the issue after initially airing its misgivings. As Serbia decides whether it moves toward Russia or its stated aim of joining the European Union, the kind of political opposition that Erolld Belegu and his basketball federation felt in 2008 may become less pronounced. It is expected that, in the wake of the IOC’s move, other international sporting bodies will follow suit.

Meanwhile, Kosovo’s athletes are training hard for Rio 2016 regardless of which direction the political battle goes. When the decision was made, Kosovo’s then-Prime Minister Hashim Thaci announced that it would be Majlinda Kelmendi who would be carrying Kosovo’s flag at the opening ceremony. “My main goal now is the Olympic games because at the moment I am the best in the world,” Kelmendi said once training had finished. “I know it’s hard. But it is not impossible. I don’t do anything else. I eat. I sleep. I train. That is it.” — K James Montague writes for the New York Times, CNN and GQ about sport and politics. He's the author of two books; When Friday Comes: Football, War and Revolution in the Middle East and Thirty One Nil: On the Road With Football's Outsiders.

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AFTER SUFFERING A KNEE INJURY AT THE 2013 GRAND PRIX, GJAKOVA CONTINUED COMPETING AND CAME HOME WITH THE BRONZE. “THERE IS NO JUDOKA IN MY CATEGORY THAT I CANNOT BEAT ON A GOOD DAY,” SHE SAID.

FROM LITTLE BROTHERS TO OLYMPIC DREAMS TEXT BY VIRTYT GACAFERRI / PHOTOS BY ATDHE MULLA

NORA GJAKOVA HAS OVERCOME SIBLING RIVALRY, SERIOUS INJURY ON HER PATH TO JUDO GLORY

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— IT WAS A FAMILY MATTER THAT almost made Nora Gjakova quit judo — her younger brother Akil was the reason.

Nora is now an Olympic hopeful for Kosovo, but she still can remember herself as a 10-year-old with tears in her eyes, struggling to fight her little brother.

“I almost quit,” Gjakova said as she shared the story of her first experiences with judo. “He is four years younger than me.

We went to judo training together and he was better. He was throwing me, and I did not like that at all.

“Of course, soon I was better and quitting was no option.

He stood no chance with me, until he became 15 and much heavier than me,” Gjakova said, smiling at the memories of her beginnings as an athlete. Fighting with her brother was a shortterm motivation for Gjakova to maintain a competitive grip on the sport. Other incentives soon came into play, though, like travel, meeting people from all around the world, the prospect of success, and especially the achievements of Majlinda Kelmendi, who became world junior champion during Gjakova’s training and inspired her to keep going. Five years of sweat, tears and wrestling with her brother made Gjakova a serious contender.

“There is not much to offer in Kosovo, other than school.

In Peja, there is judo that can take you to the top of the world. The rest is very underdeveloped, even compared to the neighboring countries,” Gjakova said.

In the world championship tournament in Zagreb in 2008, she came first in her weight division, and in 2010 she came in seventh place. Along the way, she visited cities in three continents, her stops including Algeria, Turkey, Hungary, Germany, Austria, Croatia and Bosnia. Unlike her competitors, she traveled holding one of the least recognized passports in the world; a Kosovo passport. With one, there are only five countries a person can travel to without a visa.

“We are quite into sports as a family,” Gjakova said. “I have full support and great motivation from my parents. On this I am very fortunate.”

Gjakova has come a long way since she and her brother took their first lesson. Now age 22, she holds reputable medals from Grand Prix, Grand Slams and World Cups, some of them gained in the name of Kosovo and some in the name of Albania prior to Kosovo’s recognition by the International Judo Federation in 2012. In November 2014, she became the European Champion under 23, representing Kosovo. “There is no judoka in my category that I cannot beat on a good day,” Gjakova said.

DYNAMIC DUO She is the second-best athlete in Kosovo in terms of results, training side by side with two-time judo world champion Majlinda Kelmendi. Gjakova hopes to follow in Kelmendi’s footsteps and fight for Kosovo at the most prestigious competition in the world: the Olympic Games, to be held in Brazil in 2016.

NORA GJAKOVA TRAINS IN HER HOMETOWN OF PEJA. STARTING JUDO AT THE AGE OF 10, GJAKOVA HAS GONE ON TO WIN MEDALS WORLDWIDE.

— In the world championship tournament in Zagreb in 2008, she came first in her weight division, and in 2010 she came in seventh place. Along the way, she visited cities in three continents, her stops including Algeria, Turkey, Hungary, Germany, Austria, Croatia and Bosnia.

“We were in the same category with Majlinda for years.

We were competing [against] each other, and that was very good for us,” Gjakova said. “She is not easy on me, which is good because it prepares me for real competition.I think that with a good game strategy, I can beat any of my competition.”

Gjakova’s confidence has grown since winning her latest medal, which came after spending nearly a year away from judo competition. In a Grand Prix tournament in Rijeka, Croatia, in 2013, she injured her knee during her first fight. She wasn’t exactly sure what had happened to her leg, but she was sure that she wanted to continue fighting. “When you are there, you want to continue and fight for a medal; one does not think much of injuries,” she said.

Gjakova continued in the Grand Prix despite the injury.

She described how she kept moving during the pauses while fighting, keeping her body warm and her blood circulating.

She knew that if she stopped, her knee could have swollen, forcing her to leave the competition. Motivated by the good results of her compatriot, Kelmendi, she continued fighting and won the bronze.

PAIN AND PERSISTENCE The bronze medal was the good news; the bad news hit her when she got home. An X-ray of her knee did not look

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SIX IN ONE GROUP STRIVES TO UNITE KOSOVO'S DIFFERENT ETHNICITIES ON THE PITCH TEXT BY CRISTINA MARI / PHOTOS BY ATDHE MULLA

A GROUP OF ETHNIC ALBANIAN BOYS AND GIRLS PLAY BEFORE A GAME IN THE YARD OF A SCHOOL IN THE ALBANIAN VILLAGE OF FIRAJE, NEAR THE SOUTHEASTERN TOWN OF SHTERPCE, WHICH IS ETHNIC SERB MAJORITY.

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— “[They were] just

gone, disappeared; from one day to another they just left.”

— IN NOVEMBER, Thibault Suisse, a 28-year-old French project manager from Sports Sans Frontieres — an organization that uses sports as a tool for integration — visited the southern Kosovo towns of Shtime and Kacanik to review their local coordinators. When they arrived, however, they found out that an unknown number of the kids they were supposed to work with had vanished. “[They were] just gone, disappeared; from one day to another they just left,” Suisse says, while smoking a cigarette at the organization’s humble, sports equipment-filled offices in Prishtina. The missing youngsters that made the news that weekend were among the passengers of those buses that leave the outskirts of the Kosovar capital in the middle of the night. Their goal? To (illegally) reach Hungary through Serbia, leaving everything behind to start a new life in the EU — or at least that’s the traffickers’ promise.

Operating in such an environment — one that sums up the consequences of a decade of conf lict in the 1990s that ended in war only 15 years ago — the ethnic divisions within Kosovo are just one of many difficulties that make Suisse’s (and Sports Sans Frontieres’) work so essential and intricate.

Sports Sans Frontieres was established in Prishtina in 2008 and now works in 12 Kosovo regions, and with six different ethnic communities: Albanians, Serbs, Bosniak, Roma, Ashkali, and Turks. In 2014, the organization had 88 volunteers between 18 and 25 years of age who assume different leadership positions to coordinate weekly games for young kids in their hometowns.

The organization calculates that around 10,000 kids from different ethnic communities take part in the activities, and they have managed to form interethnic groups in eight cities. Even in the most remote Kosovo school, one will find students playing with one of the 22,800 indestructible yellow balls that the organization has distributed throughout the country.

Recently, Sports Sans Frontieres won the One World Award in the category of “Sport for Conf lict Resolution” after competing for the distinction with 300 other international projects from all over the world. Those are the numbers, but the everyday reality is more convoluted; it is a labyrinth with high and forbidding walls.

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➳

charismatic leader of this locality’s group of coordinators. According to Tahiri, five years ago there were ethnic Ahskali families living in Tuneli i Pare, but not anymore. “They were told they didn’t belong here,” he says. “They were discriminated against and so they left.” The exchanges hosted by Sports Sans Frontieres are his only chance to meet people from other Kosovo communities.

He sees his volunteer work with the village kids as a chance “to get away from the problems of the street, and also to protect the kids from them.” He wants to become a physical education teacher. His friend Leon, an animator on the court, is wearing a red T-shirt featuring the Albanian eagle. It’s from the Torcida fans club.

“We had a talk about symbols,” says Suisse. “It’s just a provocation, and they don’t understand why it is important to avoid these things.” The organization made it clear since the beginning that political talks are something best avoided. Religion, however, is a more acceptable topic: A few times a year, Sports Sans Frontieres organizes cultural visits with all its volunteers to places ranging from the Decani Monastery to swimming pools.

For many, says Suisse, these occasions are the first times they leave their village.

SERBIA VS. ALBANIA: THE MOST CONTENTIOUS MATCH

— The exchanges hosted

by Sports Sans Frontieres are his only chance to meet people from other Kosovo communities.

On a cold Saturday morning in November, Suisse drives us to the town of Tuneli i Pare, just outside Mitrovica. On our way, we see a woman throwing a bag of trash into the river where garbage blocks the flow of water. There is also garbage all around the small sports court at the entrance of town. The court features torn fences, damaged basketballs and netless goals.

It is here that Armend, 18, starts leading warm-up exercises with a group of about 20 kids. His whistle is like the Pied Piper of Hamelin’s f lute, and the f low of kids (some still in their pajamas) arriving in the court from the often unfinished houses surrounding the field is continuous. They are all Albanian.

Aurel Tahiri is the 18-year-old Milanista who serves as the

Only a few months ago, after the abandoned football match between Serbia and Albania on Oct. 14, the organization saw itself heading backward due to the amount of nationalistic behavior and messages that its volunteers were both sharing on Facebook and bringing to the activities they do across Kosovo. “This game has been like going six months backward,” says Estelle Maitre, head of mission of Sports Sans Frontieres in Kosovo. It didn’t take long before the insults began to appear.

Before the infamous match, says Maitre, a precedent appeared. In May 2014, the storm called Yvette caused 51 casualties in Serbia and necessitated the evacuation of more than 30,000 people. “An Albanian volunteer posted a photo on Facebook of a flood victim and said that that is what Serbs deserve because of the war in Kosovo,” Maitre says.

The post sparked numerous reactions and accusations, especially among certain Serb and Albanian volunteers. These volunteers often find Facebook to be a very important network where their ethnic and even linguistic differences are diminished by technology. “Facebook is private,” says Suisse, “but there are many volunteers and also kids in the network, and they have to care about the image they give.”

The day after a drone flew over the Partizan Stadium in Belgrade carrying a “Greater Albania” f lag (ending the match and prompting a rush of violence both in the stands and on the field), a Serbian volunteer posted an image of Albania’s national team f leeing toward the changing rooms for protection and accused them of being cowards. Again, the vast group of teenagers got

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into a heated dispute and exchanged an endless series of accusations amid pleas from other volunteers to stop fighting for the good of the network.

Whoever put that drone in the sky could not have known the extent of its consequences.

In the southern town of Shterpce, near the Macedonian border, the red, blue and white colors of the Serbian flag wave above the municipality. Sports Sans Frontieres works with two groups there, one Serbian and one Albanian. They are not mixed, though that was the intention before the Belgrade match. “For me, it’s not a problem,” says Nikola Bozilovic, a 17-year-old Red Star fan and the only Serbian volunteer that the organization managed to engage in this town, “but kids won’t come — they don’t want to collaborate, to be together.”

When he started, his friends quit volunteering: “One left because her boyfriend wouldn’t allow her to come, and another one because he was too patriotic and didn’t want to mix with other communities, as this is the philosophy of Sports Sans Frontieres.”

Bozilovic and all the other kids wore T-shirts featuring nationalistic Serbian messages after the Albania-Serbia match.

“Imagine if we had a mixed group,” says Suisse. For a few weeks after the infamous game, Albanian kids in Shterpce weren’t allowed to board school buses in town. “Some children [in the Albanian-inhabited village of Firaje] were being intimidated, so they had to walk,” says Osman Mani primary school director Ganimete Xhemajli.

At this center, Sports Sans Frontieres works with the Albanian group. Some of the children live up to five kilometers away from the school. Xhemajli is in her late 50s, and has suffered more than intimidation on the bus: “With the problems we had in the past, I think it’s time to move forward,” she says, smiling.

Later on, Suisse points out that older people are more positive toward the group’s interethnic project.

Arlinda Hyseni is a tough young woman of 17 who learned Serbian working at her father’s DIY shop in Firaje, just a few kilometers from Shterpce. She is the leader of the Albanian group activities in this part of the country. “My parents and my brothers say what I’m doing is stupid because older and smarter people tried to do it and didn’t manage,” she says, adding that

SPORTS SANS FRONTIERES WORKS WITH SIX ETHNIC COMMUNITIES IN KOSOVO, INCLUDING SERBS, ALBANIANS, ROMA, ASHKALI, BOSNIAK AND TURKS, WITH KIDS FROM ALL AGES. HERE, AN ETHNIC-ALBANIAN BOY WARMS UP IN A SCHOOL IN FIRAJE, IN SOUTHEASTERN KOSOVO.

USUALLY, SPORTS SANS FRONTIERES ORGANIZES GAMES THAT KIDS HAVE NO CHANCE TO PLAY IN SCHOOL, AS BASKETBALL AND FOOTBALL OCCUPY THE PHYSICAL EDUCATION CURRICULA. IN THE PHOTO, A BOY PREPARES FOR ONE OF THE ACTIVITIES IN A SCHOOL IN FIRAJE, IN SOUTHEASTERN KOSOVO.

— Whoever put that drone in

the sky could not have known the extent of its consequences. previous attempts failed “to either give something new to the Albanian kids [or to] work with both, Albanian and Serbian.”

A young father named Afrim greets his son from the other side of the schoolyard fence on his way home. When he sees Suisse, he stops to express his gratitude. “I’m a taxi driver and I come and go every day,” says Afrim. “Here there is not any perspective for the youth; if my son wasn’t here he would just be in front of the TV.” Hyseni — who is the leader of the group and wants to become a lawyer — has already asked a few parents whether they would accept mixing the group from Firaje with the Serbian children from Shterpce. “Some agreed but some said that they would not bring the kids because we cannot guarantee their security,” Hyseni says before adding that she will not give up: “We will have to convince them.”

On the other side of Kosovo, in the Bosniak neighborhood near the Iber River that divides the city of Mitrovica, father of two Mirsad Pazari seems to have a different experience, though his life has been marked by mixture. A technician for the PTK telecommunications company, he lives in North Mitrovica and works in the South. His wife’s father was Albanian, and her

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THE ORGANIZATION FOCUSES ON ACTIVITIES THAT PROMOTE GENDER EQUALITY AND GENDER INTEGRATION, WITH NO SPECIAL DIFFERENCES OR TREATMENTS WHEN BOYS AND GIRLS PLAY TOGETHER.

— “Some agreed but some

said that they would not bring the kids because we cannot guarantee their security.”

mother was Serb. In the beginning, they brought their eldest daughter to a school in the Bosniak system, but after seeing that there were only two other students in the class, they changed their minds and brought both of them to another school where they would learn with Albanian kids. Before the war, he was fired, and while he was exiled in Germany he received a call to work in the South after the war.

When asked if it’s possible to see kids from different communities together without it being some sort of special or contrived case, he is convinced. “These kids don’t know what war is, and they don’t know about the past,” he says. But parents do.

What’s their role in all this, we ask? “Maybe they will see that some bring their kids, and that nothing happens,” he says.

“Without this organization, this wouldn’t happen because people don’t do this here.”

FROM ECONOMIC STABILITY TO ‘SOCIAL CALM’ Fahri Jashari is the civil society coordinator for the municipality of Mitrovica and has worked since 2008 with Sports Sans Frontieres. Jashari agrees with other municipality representatives that so long as economic problems persist, issues of social cohesion difficulties will do so as well.

“Before, we had the Trepca giant,” says Jashari, referring to a large regional mine that has been practically inactive since 1999.

It used to employ more than 20,000 workers and once accounted for 70 percent of Kosovo’s gross domestic product. “Now the whole Mitrovica region is one of the poorest in the country and very little has been invested, but we can see some perspective returning because we transformed Mitrovica from an industrial to a university city.”

He complains that the media has portrayed his city as a place of ethnic division, and points to the frequent exchanges on both sides of the bridge, emphasizing the changes wrought by the new Diakonia Youth Center. “It is a center that has managed to bring together youth from all communities in one place … Albanians, Serbs, Turks, Roma, and have organized activities that are complementing integration and multi-ethnicity very well, with no incidents,” he says.

Valdet Shoshi is a 52-year-old former football coach who is responsible for sporting activities in the city of Peja. Shoshi says that economic stability would give young people social calm and

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THIBAULT SUISSE, A 28-YEAR-OLD FORMER PROJECT COORDINATOR WITH SPORTS SANS FRONTIERES, SPENT MOST OF HIS TIME VISITING VOLUNTEERS AND KIDS IN VILLAGES ACROSS KOSOVO, OFTEN ACTING AS A PSYCHOLOGIST AND NEGOTIATOR.

NIKOLA BOZILOVIC, 17, IS THE ONLY ETHNIC SERB VOLUNTEER THAT SPORTS SANS FRONTIERES PERSUADED TO KEEP WORKING IN SHTERPCE, A SERB-MAJORITY TOWN. OTHERS REFUSE THE INTER-ETHNIC APPROACH.

security, and says that the ever-present question of EU integration has caused hopes to rise too high.

“We expected a lot more,” Shoshi says, “and if we were members of international federations in every respective sport, then governments would invest more, and the youth would see more perspectives.” He says that Sports Sans Frontieres, with its donation of 900 balls, has done more for Peja than the government has in 15 years.

In the past, Shoshi worked at the Leather and Shoe Combine, the oldest industrial plant in Peja, founded in 1959. “The factory was privatized for very little money,” the ex-coach explains, “and I think a privatization level like Kosovo’s is a failure — more people could be employed, and this affects youth unemployment as well.” The rate of youth unemployment in Kosovo is over 55 percent. While there are few jobs, Kosovo’s Internet penetration rate exceeds 76 percent, one of the highest rates in Europe, according to a Kosovo Association of Information and Communication Technology report. The virtual world or moving abroad seem to be the favored options for the young.

“Technology is killing us,” says Xheneta Maliqi, an 18-yearold law student from Kamenica who has seen the transformation of her town's social spaces from physical to cybernetic, at least for her age-mates. She is now the leader of Sports Sans Frontieres’ most successful chapter in Kamenica. There, children from adjacent Serbian and Albanian schools never shared the yard between the two buildings until Sports Sans Frontieres proposed

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the idea to the directors, who agreed. Albanian, Serbs and Roma children now share the yard.

Despite the success in Kamenica, where Maliqi says that relations between both communities are historically more f luid (even among her parents’ generation), she remains convinced that in 15 years, schools will be still separated by ethnicity.

“Before,” Maliqi says, “we had a youth center where Serbs and Albanians would do things together, from English or cooking lessons to playing pingpong — it was always full of people.

But it closed a year and a half ago, so now youngsters just drink coffee all day or [hang out on] social media — there is not really a free place where they can converge.”

Following Suisse and Maitre at work at Sports Sans Frontieres (together with their translators), one realizes that they often become psychologists as they negotiate with the fragile beings who will compose Kosovo’s future. After a year of working with the same children, the kids don’t cheat any more when the monitor is not looking at them, they stop counting the points of the game to see who wins and the Roma kids don’t feel discriminated against when they don’t get the ball passed to them at school in Mitrovica (nor do their parents).

Before solving the problem of ethnic division, they encounter basic problems rooted in poverty and a lack of both education and infrastructure — whatever the community. Meanwhile, donors are mainly attracted to high profile, “inter-ethnic” projects, which can leave these more foundational problems unaddressed while the fear of the stranger grows.

“This is the most important part,” says Suisse, after a tense negotiation to defuse an organized fight between two grownup volunteers over one’s cursing of the other’s dead relatives (both were Albanian). “Many times,” says Suisse, “they have the same problems: pride, low self-esteem … teenagers.”

As they both had supporters on their sides, the two 18-yearolds decided to reconcile and affirmed that they did so only to keep the harmony of the 88-volunteer network. Suisse, who used to work for the pedagogical program of a swimming pool back in France, puts it clearly in words that could well be a metaphor for society: “Sports Sans Frontieres is not a brand; it’s a team, and I think that’s the key: the feeling to be part of something. If you don’t have this, you don’t have a network any more.” — K

ARLINDA HYSEINI, 17, LEADS A GROUP OF KIDS EVERY WEDNESDAY IN FIRAJE, AN ALBANIAN VILLAGE WITHIN THE SERB MUNICIPALITY OF SHTERPCE, IN WHICH THE ORGANIZATION AIMS AT HAVING AN ETHNICALLY MIXED GROUP IN THE FUTURE.

Cristina Mari is a staff writer at Kosovo 2.0.

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