It has now been made official, the 21 UEFA European Under-2027 Football Championship will be held in Albania and Serbia. These two countries applied as a joint candidate and have been awarded the right by UEFA to host the event.

But the decision of the Albanian Football Federation to cooperate with the Serbian state has not been welcomed by football fans in Kosovo and has been harshly criticized, considering it premature and completely unnecessary.

Football analyst Ramiz Shala tells KosovaPress that this cooperation was completely unnecessary, especially when it is known that the Serbian Federation is the most heavily sanctioned by UEFA and that their hooligan acts could be repeated in this championship.

"Imagine there are Kosovo boys playing for Albania's U-21 team and they come from families that suffered from the last war and imagine how difficult it is for them to hear Serbian hooligans calling out the term that I don't want to mention but that the entire sports-loving public knows that the Serbian federation is the federation that has been sanctioned the most for hooliganism within the European continent, within the European Football Federation... The Albanian Federation doesn't know what it took to get into such an organization, having ample organizations within UEFA to which it could apply and for which it could make a joint project with Kosovo, with Montenegro, with Croatia, but where exactly did it find Serbia?", emphasizes Shala.

On the other hand, Kushtrim Krasniqi, from the Kosovo Olympic Committee, considers that this cooperation is very early between these two countries. According to him, countries like Croatia and Slovenia do not cooperate with Serbia any longer.

"It is very early to realize such cooperation between two countries like Albania and Serbia when it is well known that countries like Croatia, Slovenia and even North Macedonia do not cooperate with Serbia in such organizations, let alone Albania. But this is bad for Kosovo because Kosovo's sport and the image of Kosovo are lost, but also the very statehood of the Republic of Kosovo... This is a signal that all Kosovo Albanian fans should finally understand that their primary national team should be Kosovo and not Albania because they live in Kosovo, are paid by Kosovo's taxes and they should support their national team as happens all over the world," says Krasniqi.

And for those who made this decision in the Albanian Football Federation, coach Arsim Plepolli says they should be "covered with shame"

"For us as Kosovars, first of all, we have not dared to think that this could happen, let alone that it would come true. It is meaningless and in my opinion shameful because even if it were the end of the world, I would not organize it, even if I knew that we would never play football again. But this is not in our hands, it is in the hands of someone else, whoever decided to make this decision should be ashamed because it has truly affected everyone and it is unacceptable on our part," says Plepolli.

When asked by KosoavPress what were the reasons that led the AFF to this decision, this federation has not responded until the moment of publication of this article.

Kosovo has already learned its group rivals for qualification in this championship. The Dardanians will face countries such as Spain, Romania, Finland, Cyprus and San Marino in Group A.