On February 13, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) rejected the Romanian Football Federation’s appeal against UEFA’s decision regarding the abandoned match with Kosovo.
The same day, the Romanian Football Federation issued a brief statement announcing that its appeal to CAS had been rejected.
The court based in Lausanne, Switzerland, on Monday issued a notice rejecting the complaint of the Football Federation of Kosovo against the Romanian federation and UEFA. But the FFK has not announced this decision at all. At least it did not do so until Wednesday afternoon.
There is no official announcement or position from the Football Federation of Kosovo regarding the CAS decision that upholds UEFA’s decision to record the interrupted match with Romania with a score of 3:0 in favor of the Romanians.
KOHA wrote to the FFK on Tuesday, but also did not receive a response.
The FFK announced on December 5 that it had “proceeded to CAS the appeal against the decision for the Romania – Kosovo match”. The federation had expressed full confidence that “CAS will make a fair and meritorious decision”.
The match on November 15 last year, held in Bucharest, was abandoned in the final minutes. Initially, players clashed on the field, while chants of “Serbia, Serbia” were heard from the stands. In a sign of revolt, the Kosovo players left the field and refused to return even when asked to do so by the referee.
And the Court of Arbitration for Sport has assessed that the fault for the interruption of the match lies with the Kosovo players, namely the Kosovo Football Federation.
“The panel considered the evidence and concluded that the Kosovo players made a unilateral decision to leave the field, in the absence of a valid instruction from the referee, and were responsible for the interruption of the match. The panel accepted that the decision of the Kosovo players was taken due to some chanting. While they were unacceptable and were subject to other sanctions by UEFA, they cannot justify the abandonment of the field by the Kosovo national team. It was for the referee to decide on the steps to be taken,” the CAS decision published on Monday reads.
So CAS confirmed what UEFA had decided. The match went to Romania with the official result, while the Romanians were fined 128 thousand euros for the violations committed.
According to the CAS decision, the Kosovo players should have returned to the field when the referee asked them to. And for this, the Kosovo Federation, not the Romanian one, was responsible for the match not being completed.
KOHA had learned that it was the players who insisted on not returning to the field of play, although the main leaders of the Federation initially asked them to do so, aware that the decision on the table might not be in their favor. But the players, supported by a now former official of the Federation, refused to return, assessing that the calls of the Romanian fans were unacceptable and punishable. The referee asked the Kosovo players to return to the field, assessing that there are conditions for the continuation of the game. But his request was not respected, while in the end all the leaders of the FFK agreed with the players’ decision. And now the match remains registered with the official result, 3:0, in favor of Romania.