Serbia against Switzerland: That brings back unpleasant memories

Something always brings them together again and again, the Serbs and the Swiss, as if there were special forces that worked between them – and right down to the lottery pots. Serbia against Switzerland at the 2018 World Cup in Kaliningrad. At the 2022 World Cup in Doha.

And now: in the Nations League, edition 24/25, in Leskovac, a city in the south of Serbia. On the edge there is a football stadium that can only accommodate 8,000 spectators. There’s a football game there on Saturday, which wouldn’t be a big deal in itself. Small provincial stage. Nations League.

But after everything that happened in Doha and before, six years ago in Kaliningrad, a game between Switzerland and Serbia is not just a side note. Too much comes together, the duel moved too much, it triggered too much. It all started with the double eagle gestures after the 2-1 victory at the World Cup in Russia. From then on the game got bigger and bigger. In recent Swiss football history, nothing has been more consequential.

The association is tempering the game

Those around the Swiss Football Association are clearly trying to deny the game any explosiveness these days. This is what national coach Murat Yakin thought, who spoke of “old stories”. His boss Pierluigi Tami, the director of the national team, later turned it into a “very old story”.

Just don’t pour oil on the fire, just don’t boil anything up – the SFV strategy is not a new one. And as long as the political context is conveyed internally with enough urgency, it is understandable. It’s all about the sport, the three points. That’s how the officials prefer it, and even more so the coach.

When he had to talk about the political dimension of the Serbia game at the beginning of the week, whether he wanted to or not, Pierluigi Tami announced that they would of course discuss the topic with the team. And also with Granit Xhaka.

 

All eyes will be on him, on Xhaka, the captain of the Swiss team, on Saturday. Xhaka was also a protagonist when it all started, on June 22, 2018. It was a close game back then, the Serbs led early, but the Swiss came back. Granit Xhaka scored and later, in the 90th minute, so did Xherdan Shaqiri.

2-1 for Switzerland, but soon no one talked about that anymore, everyone just talked about the double eagle. Shaqiri formed his hands into one after the winning goal, so did Xhaka – as he did after his goal – and Swiss captain Stephan Lichtsteiner also made the gesture.

The double eagle, the gesture of the Albanians and Kosovar Albanians, in front of the Serbian fans who had been provoking and whistling throughout the game. And they targeted Swiss footballers with Kosovar origins, for example: Shaqiri, Xhaka, also Valon Behrami. They did this because of the conflict over Kosovo, which continues to this day. For Serbia it is part of its own national territory. The Kosovars declared their independence in 2008.

After the final whistle, the story grows and grows. While the SFV in Russia is trying with modest success to limit the damage, a political discussion is breaking out at home. The double-headed eagle gesture hits a nerve in Switzerland, an immigration country with its many dual citizens.

The Federal Council intervened in the double eagle debate

Natalie Rickli, then Zurich SVP National Councilor, tweeted that the two goals were “not for Switzerland, but for Kosovo”. Federal Councilor Ignazio Cassis, on the other hand, does not doubt that “you can feel patriotic emotions for the nation that welcomed you without forgetting your homeland.” Now it’s about the big lines. About identity, about origins, about loyalty. About real and less real Swiss. Not least about diffuse feelings that were slumbering somewhere. And now break free uninhibitedly.

The football association doesn’t do a good job in this matter because it underestimates the dynamics and significance, before the game and after. After the events, General Secretary Alex Miescher discussed in an interview whether the football association should train dual citizens in the future. Various national players, including Xhaka, react with criticism.

A few weeks later, Miescher resigned. It is the beginning of major upheavals in the SFV. The position of national team director is created and filled by Pierluigi Tami in 2019. Dominique Blanc becomes the new SFV president. And the head of communications will also be replaced.

When Switzerland meets Serbia again at the 2022 World Cup, there will be a lot at stake again. Switzerland wins again. And emotions run high again. Albanian mothers are said to have been insulted from the Serbian bank. Serbian national coach Dragan Stojkovic utters foul curses. At one point, Granit Xhaka gestures towards the Serbs’ bench, briefly grabbing his crotch. Later in the game, a hand will end up on his throat. It is that of Serbian goalie Vanja Milinkovic-Savic.

 

And finally, after the end of the game, while celebrating the victory, Xhaka puts on the jersey of teammate Ardon Jashari. Jashari, like Adem Jashari, who co-founded the Kosovo Liberation Army UCK – the UCK that fought for Kosovo independence in the Kosovo War against the Serbs in the 1990s.

“No political background at all,” Xhaka later said. Be that as it may, Doha does not have the same impact as Kaliningrad. But even there it becomes clear how much explosive power the game has. What emotions it stirs up, on both sides.

Even when FC Lugano played against Partizan Belgrade in Thun in August, Serbian fans chanted: “Kosova is Serbia.” In return, Lugano players of Kosovar origins, including Swiss national player Uran Bislimi, celebrated with provocative gestures – the double eagle was also visible.

Bislimi is not in the squad this time, unlike Xhaka, whose father Ragip was arrested in Kosovo in the 1980s by the Yugoslav police controlled from Belgrade, was released after three years in prison and fled to Switzerland. Without the Kosovo conflict there would be no Swiss national player Xhaka. But there is no Swiss national player, Xhaka, who is not bothered by the conflict.

This time Xhaka is almost alone

Now Xhaka is playing against Serbia in Serbia for the first time, and because Shaqiri recently retired and Andi Zeqiri is only a supplementary player, he is likely to be the only Swiss of Kosovar origin who will be on the pitch. According to the association, there were never any considerations about not calling up Xhaka for the game in Leskovac. That would have been surprising, especially since Xhaka isn’t one to hide. But he won’t talk before the game.

Something always happened when Serbia and Switzerland met each other. But that doesn’t mean it has to be that way now. Exactly: Nations League. The small stadium in Leskovac. The great security precautions of the Serbian Football Association with personalized tickets and a large police presence. Added to this is the general indifference that observers say there is currently in Serbia towards the national team.