Current Status
On February 17, 2008 Kosovo declared independence from Serbia and sought international recognition. A number of states such as France, the United States and the United Kingdom immediately recognised the new state. Others, such as Serbia, Russia and China are fiercely opposed to independence.
On May 6, 2008, Kosovo applied for FIFA membership. "It's an historical moment for our country. We hope to be accepted.", said Fadil Vokrri, president of the FFK. Kosovo's applications was discussed at the FIFA Congress in Zurich, in October 2008 when Kosovo was rejected membership in FIFA and denied right to play any friendly matches as it was deemed it does not comply with article 10 of the FIFA statutes, that only "an independent state recognized by the international community" may be admitted into FIFA. FIFA reverted that decision in May 22, 2012, stating that Kosovo may play other nations in international friendlies according to Article 79 of the FIFA Statutes.
In September 2012, Albanian international Lorik Cana, along with Swiss internationals Xherdan Shaqiri, Granit Xhaka and Valon Behrami (all of them with Kosovar Albanian origin) wrote a declaration to the president of FIFA, Sepp Blatter, asking him to allow the Kosovo national team to be allowed to play friendly matches. The declaration was also signed by 5 other Albanian footballers. This came about as a consequence of the decision by FIFA not to allow the Kosovo team to play friendly matches against other national teams. In a meeting held in May 2012, FIFA decided to allow friendly matches to be played, a decision it later revoked following a strong protest issued by Football Association of Serbia. A new meeting was planned to be held at FIFA on September 27 and 28 same year in which the Kosovo issue was again planned to be discussed, which was then postponed until December.
Read more about this topic: Kosovo National Football Team
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