Coaches sidestep political dispute

The coaches of Serbia and Switzerland only want to talk about football, not about an entrenched political dispute casting a shadow over their teams’ World Cup showdown in Russia this evening.

Tensions have been building in Serbia before the Group E match in Kaliningrad. Not between Swiss and Serbian fans, but between Albanian and Serbian supporters.

That is because several players in the Swiss squad have Kosovo Albanian roots, including midfielder Xherdan Shaqiri, who was born in Kosovo, the former Serbian province that declared independence in 2008. Serbia doesn’t recognise Kosovo’s independence and relations between the two countries remain tense.

Switzerland coach Vladimir Petkovic didn’t want to discuss the issue yesterday.

When a reporter asked Petkovic how he would discuss it with his players, he sidestepped the question.

“We will tell them we had a great match against Brazil. That’s not enough; we have to play better against Serbia,” Petkovic said. Switzerland held Brazil to a 1-1 draw in their opening match, while Serbia beat Costa Rica 1-0 to top the group after one round.

Serbia coach Mladen Krstajic was equally reluctant to be drawn into the debate. “I’m not into politics,” he said. “We have our goals. We’re here for sports to represent our country in the best possible way and we’re not at all interested in anything else.”

Shaqiri, pictured, makes no secret of his pride for his heritage at the World Cup. At training, he wore football boots with Kosovo’s flag on his right heel and the Swiss flag on the left.

Tonight’s match also features two coaches who both come from Bosnia, a country that emerged from the former Yugoslavia after the bitter war in the 1990s.