Hopefully this time it’s about Football

The young man at the hotel reception rolls his eyes and then says with a pained smile: “You know what? I don’t care! I used to watch a lot, but the way they played recently, I’m no longer interested in the team.”

We are in Leskovac, a small town in the south of Serbia, just a good hour’s drive from Kosovo. The game of the Serbian national team? The political explosiveness because of the Kosovar roots of some Swiss national players? Seem to be of only marginal interest here, if at all.

Serbia’s recent performances have caused masses back home to turn away from the team. Coach Dragan Stojkovic’s team qualified for the 2024 European Championship with a bang – and suffered shipwreck there as bottom of the group behind Slovenia, Denmark and England. There hasn’t been a competitive win this year.

Officially, the reason why the game against Switzerland is taking place in the 8,000-person small stadium in Leskovac, which will open in 2023, is a new association strategy: go out of the center of Belgrade, get in touch with the people in all parts of the country – just like the Swiss national team is doing Playing in the smaller arenas in Sion, St.Gallen and Lucerne does. Unofficially, it is said that the Serbian association wants to avoid the embarrassment of having to play in front of empty stands at the Marakana National Stadium. Because the audience is increasingly turning away because of the lack of success. During the guest appearance of European champions Spain at the beginning of September, the Marakana was only half full.

After an exhilarating summer of tournaments, like the one Switzerland recently gave its fans in Germany, for a sporting exploit like the Swiss’ two European Championship quarter-finals in 2024 and 2021, people in Serbia long in vain.

Since the Serbian Football Association was founded in 2006, the team has never made it past the group stage at a European Championship or World Cup. The quality of the individual players and their prominent employers (AC Milan, Porto, Aston Villa) suggest to the Serbian audience, but also to the players, that a team like Switzerland is treated on an equal footing. For comparison: Since 2006, the Swiss national team has been in the knockout phase of a tournament six times.

De-escalation strategy in the Swiss camp

Progression was secured twice in duels against Serbia. 2022 at the World Cup in Qatar (3:2) and 2018 in Russia (2:1). The game in Kaliningrad six years ago marked the beginning of the explosiveness that has surrounded games between Switzerland and Serbia ever since. Not explosive for sporting reasons, but for political reasons: Because of the Kosovar origins of Nati stars Granit Xhaka and the now retired Xherdan Shaqiri, who celebrated their goals with the double eagle at the 2018 World Cup in response to the hostility of the Serbian fans.

Since then, Switzerland – Serbia has been about more than just football. Even if the actors vehemently want to counteract this. “An old story,” says Murat Yakin before the third meeting with Serbia since 2018. And Pierluigi Tami says: “Our job is football, we can’t influence anything else.”

But it is the national team director who admits that they will definitely talk to Granit Xhaka before the game in Leskovac. The explosiveness cannot be completely erased. And the fact that Granit Xhaka will only speak out in the media after and not before the game in Serbia is also due to the events of the past.

The real explosiveness lies on the pitch

But it is also important to note that no reasons have emerged in the last few days to provoke a scandal this time too. You have to look for them proactively, which you can’t do. No provocations from either camp, no media igniting. And because everything in the province takes place on a small scale, football fans can be confident that there will be football at the Dubocica Stadium on Saturday evening.

Because there is also sporty pepper in it. For both teams: Serbia has a lot to make up for in terms of popularity with the audience. And after the false start in the Nations League three months after the European Championship furioso, the Swiss are already at a critical point: they are threatened with relegation from League A for the first time. And missing the quarter-finals in the Nations League, which was originally announced as the goal, could be unpleasant Consequences for qualification for the 2026 World Cup: A move to draw pot 2 makes the rocky road to the tournament in the USA, Mexico and Canada even more difficult.

The question remains: How can the Swiss team achieve a turnaround in the Nations League? Midfielder Remo Freuler’s statement sums it up: “We clearly have to improve defensively. We’re always good for a goal at the front.” The six goals conceded in the opening games against Denmark (0:2) and Spain (1:4) are insufficient. And surprisingly, the defense at the European Championships was still the showpiece of Murat Yakin’s team.

The national team coach is also required to continue to shape the upheaval following the resignations of Shaqiri, Sommer and Schär and at the same time to ensure results that turn the mood and the table position into a positive. The national team coach makes it clear: “We have all the players on board, we have trained well – the game in Serbia will be a benchmark and groundbreaking.”