Waiting for Bosnia’s Foreign Ministry to decide whether it will issue visas for Kosovo’s national basketball team under 16 years of age was not a very good experience, the team’s manager, Petrit Zequiri, said on Saturday.
Foreign Affairs Minister Igor Crnadak and Boris Spasojevic, a member of the Bosnian Basketball Association (KSBiH) Management Board and Head of the Basketball Association of Republika Srpska, Bosnia’s Serb-dominated half, accused each other on Friday of causing the visa problem.
The Foreign Minister approved the visas for the Kosovo U16 basketball team on Friday after Spasojevic publicly stated that the RS Association never objected the Kosovo team’s participation at the U16 European Championship in Sarajevo.
Crnadak said that was not true and that the Association did object the participation.
“This was not a good experience. We came to play basketball … we came to give our best,” Zequiri said.
“This has not demotivates us,” he declared, adding that because of the delay, his team will have less time to practice but that he was grateful for all the help the team got.
The Kosovo team will be playing against Bosnia on Sunday and against the Ukraine on Wednesday and that the matches will be difficult because the visa problem is forcing the Kosovars to play eight matches in eight days, he said.
VEZANE VIJESTI
