Why Czech fan is supporting Kosovo before his state

Cheekia and Kosovo will face tonight in the battle at “Doosan Arena” in 20:45, for the dream of qualification at the 2020 European Championship. While Chechia aims to win this match to secure a country in EURO, Kosovo must avoid losing to keep hope alive.

Despite his country's opposition to Kosovo tonight, a Czech fan has collected photographs of Kosovo midfielder Valon Berisha in a notebook and aims to obtain the autograph of “Dardians”.

For Gazeta Express, he has said he does the same for any national who come to visit Czechia.

Unlike this fan, Cekya fears that a large number of Czech fans could call against Kosovo in support of Serbia. Fears that political calls may be made in today's match have even engulfed Czech Football Federation chairman Martin Malik.

“I would like to ask all football fans in the Czech Republic not to make calls or political actions, or banners concerning Kosovo. I believe the last thing we want is to take points off the W EFA in Group A, which would cost us with qualifications at EURO”, Malik said.

Two years ago, when Sparta Prague had played a qualifying match for the European League against Crvena Zvezda, Czech and Serbian fans had joined against Kosovo. When Serbs cheered on “Kosovo” on the other side of the Czech stadium, the Czechs answered “is Serbia”, while part of the audience at the applauding stadium.

This September, when the Czech Republic played in Pristina, police arrested eight Czech towns -- six men and two women -- before the match. Police had found a fear, a Serbian flag and a large banner that written “Kosovo is Serbia”.

In an effort to avoid such situations in Thursday's Pilsen match, the Czech Federation has decided to sell tickets only to fans who have Czech citizenship. Fans will have to have some identification when they enter the stadium.