UEFA has cancelled the media credentials of Kosovar journalist Arlind Sadiku at Euro 2024 following complaints about a nationalist gesture he made towards Serbia fans during their game against England on Sunday in Gelsenkirchen.
Football Federation of Serbia (FFS) spokesman Milan Vukovic asked for Sadiku’s removal saying he provoked Serbian fans when he turned towards them during a live broadcast and made a double-headed eagle with his hands.
The gesture mimics the eagle on Albania’s national flag, which can inflame tensions between Serbian nationalists and ethnic Albanians, who make up the vast majority of Kosovo’s population.
After the Kosovo war in the late 1990s, Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008. But Serbia does not recognise it as an independent state.
“UEFA can confirm that one journalist has had his accreditation cancelled due to misconduct at the UEFA EURO 2024 match between Serbia and England on 16 June 2024,“ UEFA said in a statement.
Sadiku told Reuters his accreditation was taken from him when he showed up for Albania’s press conference on Tuesday.
He acknowledged the gesture was unprofessional for a journalist, but argued that it is not “offensive to anyone.”
“People don’t know how I was feeling in that moment because I have trauma from the war,“ he told Reuters, adding that he had received death threats via social media.
UEFA’s Control, Ethics and Disciplinary Body (CEDB) fined the Serbian Football Association 10,000 euros on Wednesday for “transmitting a provocative message not fit for a sports event” during Sunday’s match.
Photos of the crowd at the match showed a banner of Serbia’s national flag which included Kosovo, its former republic, within its borders.
The soccer federation of Kosovo also launched a complaint with UEFA about banners which they said contained “political, chauvinistic and racist messages.”
