Authors: Fatbardh Dema and Etrit Rexhepi
Content was published claiming that six of the main players of the Kosovo National Team had decided to boycott the team and not play for it as long as Agim Ademi was president of the FFK.
In addition to Amir Rrahmani, who has already made public his decision to leave the Kosovo national football team, the list of those mentioned includes Edon Zhegrova, Vedat Muriqi, Milot Rashica, Arijanet Muriç and Florent Muslija, while the identity of the sixth footballer was not known.
The claim was initially shared on the social network "X" and then on a Facebook page in Albanian, while it was also reported by the Serbian media outlet "Novosti.rs" as a joint boycott of footballers against the FFK leadership.
The truth?
Arijanet Muriç and Florent Muslija have denied that they would boycott the Kosovo National Team because of the FFK leaders, while the author of the claim has admitted that his sources for Muriç were incorrect.
In a post dated September 13 on the “X” platform, the “FootballByVigi” account claimed that, after Amir Rrahmani, six other Kosovo national team players, including Edon Zhegrova, Florent Muslija, Arijanet Murici, Milot Rashica and Vedat Muriqi, have decided not to play for Kosovo until Agim Ademi leaves the post of FFK president (see here).
The post stated that the identity of the seventh footballer is not known, but it was claimed that it could be one of Bersant Celina, Arbër Zeneli, Fidan Aliti, Valon Berisha or Mërgim Vojvoda.
But, after this announcement, information about Arijanet Muriçi was published in the online medium "Telegrafi.com", which indicated that after his father had denied that the goalkeeper had rejected Kosovo's invitation due to dissatisfaction with the FFK leaders and had confirmed that he was happy with the National Team.
The article reported that Muric is expected to be part of Kosovo in the Nations League matches.
Following this announcement, the author of the publication in "X", through a notification another, retracted his previous claim about Arijanet Muriçi, admitting that his sources were incorrect. He states that, after this case, he will no longer publish such claims, but only analyzes about matches and players.
Another of the footballers mentioned in this claim, who denied it, was Florent Muslija. In a post published on September 14 on the Facebook page "Gazeta Olle", it was said that Muslija stated that he is currently injured, stating that, if he were ready, he would gladly join the Kosovo National Team and describing the reports of a boycott as "slander".
The announcement said that he stressed that his greatest pride is wearing the national team jersey and that Kosovo must be united before important matches (see here).
The post from the X account, “FootballByVigi,” was then shared by an Albanian Facebook page as “Kosovar Football Fans","Radio Vision"and "goal365shqip".
This claim later found its way into the Serbian language media.Novosti.rs". The article published by this medium bears the title "PUČE BRUKA USRED PRIŠTINE! Nezamćena catastrophe lažne dharva Kosovo!" (SCANDAL IN THE MIDDLE OF PRISHTINA! Unprecedented catastrophe of the fake state of Kosovo!).
Excerpt from the article "Novosti.rs", translated into Albanian:
Coach Franco Foda has been faced with an unprecedented problem, as seven key players have declined invitations to the upcoming Nations League matches. The reason for this radical move is clear – the team’s biggest stars are united in their decision not to play for the national team while Agim Ademi is at the helm of the Football Federation.
The first to publicly withdraw and abandon the team was captain Amir Rrahmani. The Napoli defender openly declared that they should not count on him as long as Ademi is president.
Immediately after him, a series of cancellations followed. The same message was sent by other well-known names in local football: Edon Zhegrova (Lille), Vedat Muriqi (Mallorca), Milot Rashica (Beşiktaş), Arijanet Muriq (Sassuolo), Florent Muslija (Freiburg).
The name of the seventh footballer who joined the boycott has not yet been officially announced, but it is learned that he is also one of the team's key players.
Analyze
Some publications claimed that six Kosovo National Team players had decided to boycott the team as long as Agim Ademi was president of the FFK.
However, two of the aforementioned footballers, Arijanet Muric and Florent Muslija, have denied involvement in such a boycott, while the author of the initial claim has admitted that the information about Muric was incorrect.
Therefore, based on the working methodology, hibrid.info assesses the treated content as "Unverified Content".
rationale
The "Unverified" rating is given to those informative contents that do not provide sufficient information to confirm the claims made in the report, and which could not be verified due to certain circumstances (speed, lack of sources) during the publication of the content.