British media analysis: How Balkan tensions are fueling enmity in Europe

By Thom Gibbs - The Telegraph

The expansion of the European Championship finals from 16 to 24 teams is good news for broadcasters and advertisers, but it has had some unintended effects. One of them is the increased possibility of internal Balkan tensions, especially when Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia and Albania qualify for the same tournament.

Of the 55 member countries of UEFA, 7 are the countries of the former Yugoslavia. The addition of Albania, which shares borders with 3 of them, as well as Greece, has led to a series of incidents since the start of the tournament.

A brief summary: Serbian fans held a placard emblazoned with a map of Kosovo and the words "No surrender". Albanian player Mirlind Daku held a megaphone joining the chants of fans "To... Serbia" and "To... Macedonia" after his team's draw with Croatia. He has now already been suspended for two games. Kosovar journalist Arlind Sadiku made a double-headed eagle gesture towards Serbian fans during their match against England.

He was stripped of his credentials by UEFA. Some Slovenian fans joined the Serbs in singing the Serbian nationalist song "Kosovo is the heart of Serbia". A banner was noticed behind the goal during the match between Italy and Albania, which read "Kosovo is Albania". The fans of Croatia and Albania chanted "Kill, kill, kill Serbia" during the match between them. Serbia threatened to withdraw from the tournament.

And so it has gone on and on and on with a series of responses from increasingly exasperated players and fans. Unrest in the region is certainly nothing new, and football is becoming a focal point for nationalist sentiment. Albania were handed a 3-0 table win in 2015 after a drone with a political banner appeared over their European qualifier against Serbia in Belgrade.

Political banners are a common sight throughout football in the region. "If you go to a football match in the Balkans, there are always nationalist slogans," says Kenneth Morrison, professor of modern history of Southeast Europe at "De Montfort" University.

"The difference here is that they are also being transported to the international arena. Stadiums are a forum through which nationalist sentiments are expressed. When you're in this region talking to people, they don't express those kinds of feelings on a daily basis. But football is one of the main channels for the transmission of nationalist sentiments," he says.

Much of the current tension centers on Kosovo, which declared independence in 2008. Serbia has never recognized it (nor has Russia, China and Spain, among others) and likely never will, which is a source of anger towards the Albanians, who make up the majority of the Kosovar population.

All the enmity has been fueled by the horrific violence in living memory, the still raw wounds of the Yugoslav conflicts of 1991-2001. Serbia generally does not acknowledge its army's crimes committed during those wars that have created lasting enmity.

"This is not a source of instability as such. They have very different nationalistic meanings for each other" - says Dr. Florian Bieber, director of the Center for Southeast European Studies at the University of Graz. "Croats believe that Serbs were primarily responsible for the wars in Yugoslavia and the crimes committed in Croatia. And then again, Serbs think about the way in which many of them were expelled from Croatia at the end of the war and blame Croatia for that." Serbia's populist president, Aleksandar Vu?i?, is fond of nationalist rhetoric, which certainly hasn't helped.

Sometimes the links between football and violence in the region have been even more pronounced. "In the 90s many of the ultra fan groups were used to recruit paramilitaries," says Dr Bieber. "They often had ties to the criminal underworld and created groups that took part in wars. So in the 90s there was a very close correlation between the worst crimes and the most radical football fans.

And yet it would be a mistake to assume that the daily lives of Serbs, Croats, Albanians and Slovenians are as volatile as this tour might suggest. Many Serbs go on vacation to Croatia and vice versa. The languages ??of Serbia, Croatia, and Bosnia are mostly the same, so people in those countries listen to each other's music, watch each other's movies, and read each other's books.

"There is a common feeling" - says Dr. Bieber. "So they have this very contradictory tendency in society. On the one hand, there are people interacting with each other, sometimes in a positive way. But then there are these nationalist stories, which are often fed from the top down. People relate to what they hear at school, and football games sometimes help fuel that antagonism."

"Most people in the region want to get on with their lives," says Professor Williams. "They want to live in peace, they want better economic opportunities for themselves and their children. They are sick of instability." They are probably looking forward to a quieter time when football is over. They and UEFA can at least be thankful that due to Monday night's results, Serbia will no longer have the opportunity to play against Croatia or Albania in the knockout round.