The former secretary of the Football Federation of Kosovo, Taulant Hodaj, said that the lack of sports infrastructure is having a negative impact on the development of football in Kosovo.
Hodaj spoke about this issue at the international conference “Freedom of Speech Borders”, hosted by the KosovaPress News Agency.
According to him, FFK has invested in stadiums only with the support of UEFA.
“According to the law in Kosovo and everywhere in the world, the sports infrastructure belongs to the government and the municipalities, they make the sports infrastructure, the stadiums, whereas the organization of the games is done by the federations. The Football Federation of Kosovo, since there were no investments, had to do this by itself with its own forces, it has created several fields with UEFA funds, it has created a national camp in Hajvalia, that it is being claimed that a stadium that fulfills the criteria for organizing international matches will be built, has built many training fields”, said Hodaj.
He further added that the solution for this is a cooperation between the state, the federation, and businesses.
“Our public institutions should be more open to innovations and creativity and to public-private partnerships because unfortunately we have failed in infrastructure, we have ruined stadiums for 10-15 years and no one has dealt with this, then we have other examples even when we were with the minister at UEFA and FIFA gave us an example, you have to cooperate government-federation-business. Without these three you cannot continue, you must be open”, said Hodaj.
In the second panel, the speakers were the president of the Prishtina MALL Board, Fatmir Zymberi, the leader of the UBT College Edmond Hajrizi, university professor Besa Luzha, Kushtrim Krasniqi from the Kosovo Olympic Committee, and Tualant Hodaj from the Kosovo Football Federation, who will present views about the possibility of creating synergies to support innovative initiatives that advance social prosperity. /A. Bytyçi
