GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES

The Balkan Wars Revisited at the World Cup

Jul 9, 2018 | 10:00 GMT

Swiss player Xherdan Shaqiri's celebration after scoring a World Cup goal against Serbia included flashing the Albanian eagle. Shaqiri was born in Kosovo, whose ethnic Albanian population fought a destructive conflict with Serbia in the 1990s.

Swiss player Xherdan Shaqiri's celebration after scoring a World Cup goal against Serbia included flashing the Albanian eagle. Shaqiri was born in Kosovo, whose ethnic Albanian population fought a destructive conflict with Serbia in the 1990s.

(CLIVE ROSE/Getty Images)

Highlights

  • The World Cup brings national sentiments to the fore among even casual fans, especially in countries whose teams have qualified for the tournament.
  • Switzerland is home to thousands of Albanian refugees who fled the former Yugoslavia during its brutal and devastating conflicts two decades ago.
  • The politics of the Balkans' lingering ethnic tensions manifested on and off the pitch in the Swiss match against Serbia.

Watching the World Cup abroad is a special experience. For the monthlong duration of the event, whole cities come to a standstill, especially as their countries' teams compete. Waiters at cafes at times seem almost unable to take orders because they are so transfixed on what's taking place on the field of play. In Lausanne, my favorite spots to watch the matches were inevitably communal in nature: The terrace of a bar at the base of the nearly 800-year-old Lausanne Cathedral called the Great Escape or a craft brewery in an industrial section of the city called La Nebuleuse. Indeed, it was here that my teaching assistant Austin Duckworth and I watched what surely will be remembered as the most politically meaningful match in the group stage of this year's competition, the one pitting Switzerland and Serbia. Nationalism and the memory of Balkan conflict were on strong display....

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