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Swiss Players No Ban


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56 minutes ago, Hadron Collider said:

Small fines for who is concerned. Fucking politics. 

As stupid and provocative as the celebration was, I'd dismiss it as spur of the moment, reacting to provocation from the crowd stuff if it wasn't for the fact that Shaqiri had a Kosovo flag on his boots. Not sure how he was allowed to take to the pitch with that.

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1 hour ago, JamieD said:

As stupid and provocative as the celebration was, I'd dismiss it as spur of the moment, reacting to provocation from the crowd stuff if it wasn't for the fact that Shaqiri had a Kosovo flag on his boots. Not sure how he was allowed to take to the pitch with that.

I think with it being the two of them doing it its premeditated. I've not looked into it but why the uproar mate? 

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32 minutes ago, born a blue nose said:

I think with it being the two of them doing it its premeditated. I've not looked into it but why the uproar mate? 

You mean what's the background to it?

It was definitely premeditated, the flag on the boots shows that.

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2 hours ago, born a blue nose said:

yeah mate I know it's a Albanian flag gesture but that's as far as my knowledge goes

They are both of Kosovar Albanian descent, Shaqiri was born in Kosovo, I think, Xhaka's dad moved to Switzerland before he was born after being jailed for taking part in nationalist protests against the Yugoslav government. They are understandably resentful about the  mass murder of Kosovar Albanians by Serbian troops in the late 90s, when the government cracked down on the Kosovo Liberation Army, an Albanian separatist paramilitary group.

The Serbs view Kosovo as their Jerusalem, it was the heart of their medieval empire and all their oldest and most precious monasteries and churches are there, even though hardly any of them live there any more. They are understandably touchy about it, and the fact that the US and the UK intervened on behalf of the Albanians and basically helped them gain their independence. The 200,000 odd Serbs who were driven out of their homes after the war by Albanian extremists don't think they should be held responsible for what their government did to the Albanians. 

Xhaka and Shaqiri decided it was a good idea to try to wind up the Serbian fans over this very sensitive issue, although by all accounts of those in the stadium, the Serbian fans abused them throughout the match too.

Tl;dr, the Swiss players really fucking enjoyed getting one over Serbia and decided to inflame nationalist tensions because Serbia did very, very bad things to their family and neighbours.

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