Serbia opposes to Kosovo playing int'l soccer matches

Serbia is against the self-proclaimed Kosovo Soccer Association playing any international matches, news reaching here quoted Serbia's top sports official as saying on Friday.

"Kosovo team can engage in international matches only if the UEFA and the FIFA have given it the permission," Zoran Lakovic, general secretary of Serbia's Soccer Association, said.

He said that Kosovo squad had already played two matches, one against Albania, another against Saudi Arabia, and that they planned to play in Germany shortly.

"The Soccer Association of Serbia will lodge a strong protest to UEFA and FIFA early next week to ask them to protect our rights," Tanjug, Serbia's official news agency, quoted him as saying.

Kosovo, Serbia's southern breakaway province, has been run by the UN since mid-1999, after NATO troops drove out Serbian forces fighting ethnic Albanian separatists.

Serbia claim that Kosovo is an integral part of its territory and wants to keep it within its border, while ethnic Albanians who account for 90 percent of the province's 2 million people demand full independence. (Xinhua)