Gloves on in Serbia-Kosovo stoush

SERBIA on Saturday blocked Kosovo’s boxing squad crossing the border to take part in a competition after the athletes refused to remove national symbols on their equipment, officials in Pristina said.

Serbia does not recognise its former ethnic-Albanian majority province as an independent state, although Kosovo proclaimed it more than 13 years ago after a war in the late 1990s. Kosovo is recognised by many international sports federations, including football’s ruling body FIFA and the International Olympic Committee – though Serbia continues to lobby against it.

“We were told that we could pass but only without the symbols of Kosovo,” Kosovo Boxing Federation chief Latif Demolli said.