Albania clinched a UEFA play-off berth thanks to the narrow victory and Serbia’s defeat to England, FIFA said.

The first major chance of the match came late in the first half when captain Berat Gjimshiti headed against the crossbar. Albania eventually broke the deadlock when Myrto Uzuni set up Kristjan Asllani, who scored with his right foot to seal the crucial points, FIFA added.

Albania will face England on 16 November at 06:00 p.m. at Tirana’s Air Albania Stadium in the final match of Group K in the 2026 World Cup qualifiers.

England have already secured top spot in the group, while Albania will compete in the play-offs for a chance to reach the 2026 World Cup.

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The FIFA Disciplinary Committee has decided to punish the Serbian Association with severe measures, following the discrimination and racist abuse of the fans and disturbance caused while playing of the national anthems during the match where Albania achieved victory thanks to a goal scored by Manaj.

The decision made public today by the FIFA reads that in the next match valid for the 2026 World Cup Qualifiers against Latvia, to be held in Leskovac, Serbia will be forced to play in front of a limited number of spectators, 25 percent restriction, i.e. a quarter of the stadium seats will remain empty.

In addition to this measure, the Serbian Association has also been fined with 87,500 Swiss francs, with the reasoning that such incidents have been repeated in the Serbian national team’s recent matches. /p.s./

The Albanian Football Association said that this committee aims to support member associations in their institutional and technical development, as well as in implementation of football governance policies.

“The election of President Duka into this structure constitutes a proper important evaluation of Albanian football and his long contribution to the international arena, where he has also been UEFA Vice-President, a member of the UEFA Executive Committee and Chairman of the UEFA Media Committee for many years,” the Albanian Football Association said. /e.i/j.p/p.s./

The Football Association said that thanks to this cooperation agreement, Albanian football will be closer to fans around the world.

“Selected matches from our championships will be broadcast on FIFA+, offering free access and high quality broadcasting for all those who want to follow the emotions of Albanian football closely”, said the Albanian Football Association.

The Football Association underlined that, “This is an important step in increasing international visibility and promoting our matches to a global audience. We are convinced that this agreement will serve as a bridge between fans and the true passion that our football offers”. /j.p/p.s./

In context of the “Qatar 2022” World Cup, Serbia played yesterday against Brazil and suffered a 2:0 loss, KosovaPress reported.

Before the match, in the dressing room of Serbia there was placed a flag showing the map of Kosovo under the colors of the Serbian flag, with the inscription “No surrender”.

“Such acts of chauvinism have no place in a sports event, and even less inside the facilities where the biggest event of world football takes place, therefore Kosovo Football Association, as an equal member with all other members of FIFA, requests from this institution to undertake sanctioning measures against actions that incite hatred between peoples and are against human values.

Football, as the most popular sport in the world, conveys the values ​​of unity, while this aggressive act does not coincide with such values, therefore it must be punished.

While Europe and the world are facing a major crisis as a result of Russia’s unprovoked aggression in Ukraine, such a grand competition as the World Cup should be a place where calls for peace prevail, not be used to incite hatred between peoples.

Kosovo is an independent and democratic state, with maximum respect for human rights and accepted by the world’s most powerful states, and as such it will continue its journey, regardless of provocations like this last one”, writes Kosovo Football Association to FIFA .

Kosovo Football Association believes that this act will not pass in silence and demands from FIFA to strictly implement the rules and punish the Football Association of Serbia for this aggressive action and being against the values ​​that football conveys./p.s./