‘Don’t confuse sports with politics,’ Kosovo tells Bosnia

Source: Al Jazeera

Kosovo has accused Bosnian authorities of mixing sports with politics after its basketball team were not issued visas in time to enter Bosnia and compete in the U-16 European Championship that is currently taking place in Sarajevo.

Kosovo‘s team was scheduled to play against the Bosnia and Herzegovina side on Thursday, the first day of the tournament which runs until August 16.

However the Kosovo Basketball Federation (FBK) told local media that by late Wednesday it still had not received an answer from Bosnia’s nearest embassy in Skopje, the capital of Macedonia, about the status of the team’s visa applications.

“Despite the fact that we have sent all the necessary documents in time, we only received a green light from the embassy to apply on Tuesday, only after we informed [International Basketball Federation] FIBA that things are not going in the right direction,” Elvira Dushku, secretary general of FBK told Balkan Insight.

Bosnia and Serbia are the only two countries from former Yugoslavia that have not recognised Kosovo’s independence from Belgrade, which it declared in 2008.

Bosnia has not recognised Kosovo primarily because ethnic Serb politicians align themselves with the positions of Serbia.

Players from Kosovo need to apply for visas to enter Bosnia. Kosovo reciprocated the mandatory visa application measure for Bosnians in 2014.

#Kosovo‘s U16 basketball team has been prevented from taking part in the European Championship that is to start tomorrow in Sarajevo. Bosnian MFA, led by a politician from Republika Srpska, refused to issue visas to the players. Bosnia should expect a reaction from FIBA.

— Agon Maliqi (@AgonMaliqi) August 8, 2018

#Bosnia’s visa refusal for #Kosovo U16 to play at European Championship is unacceptable! We call on @FIBA & EU to take immediate measures to stop…

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