While Wednesday’s heart breaking extra-time defeat to HJK meant that the Inver Reds’ Champions League campaign is over, this summer’s European odyssey is not over as Kosovan champions FC Ballkani await in the Europa Conference League second qualifying round.
Ballkani also lost out at the first hurdle of Champions League qualifying after a 4-2 aggregate defeat to Bulgarian heavyweights Ludogorets. This is despite shocking many across European football by winning the first leg 2-0 at their home away from home the Fadil Vokrri Stadium thanks to goals from Meriton Krenica and Qendrim Zyba. However, it was very much a tie of two halves as they fell 4-0 in Razgrad.
The club can trace its origins back to 1947 when a group of athletes founded Rinia, which was initially a multi-sport club until 1952 when they officially entered the Yugoslav Football League system in the Kosovan Regional Leagues. Their name officially changed to FC Ballkani in 1965 when the club was taken over by the Balkan Chemical and Rubber Company based in their hometown of Suva Reka. The town of Suva Reka has a population of just 10,500, which makes it just over half the size of Larne!
Kosovo has a troubled recent past with civil war in the country throughout the 90s and the club also suffered a turbulent time throughout this period. They were founders of the Kosovan League in 1995, which broke away from the Yugoslavian Football Federation and was established four years before the United Nations established a Kosovan Republic.
In 2008, the independent republic of Kosovo was formed and the Kosovan Superliga became the official top league of the nation, having spent much of its history as a regional league of Yugoslavia. FC Ballkani, like many clubs, struggled in the immediate peacetime and dropped down as far as the third tier. They made a brief return to the top flight in 2010 but only remained for one season and had to wait until 2017 to make it back to the Superliga.
When the club was first formed, they wore white but changed their official colours to orange and black in 1973 having been inspired by the Johann Cruyff-led Netherlands side of that era. That was the first year that they made it to the top of the Kosovan Regional Leagues and they have kept those colours to this day.
Much like Larne, ‘The Gabriels’ have made history in recent years as they have also won their first top flight title. They won theirs a year earlier in the 2021/22 season and, last season, achieved what the Inver Reds will look to do this coming season and retained their title.
With the Kosovo Football Federation (KFF) only being granted UEFA membership in 2016, there is next to no history of any Kosovan clubs in European competition. The summer of 2017 saw Trepca 89 enter the Champions League First Qualifying Round to make history as the first Kosovan side to enter a UEFA competition. However, they suffered a 6-2 aggregate reversal to Vikingur of the Faroe Islands while Prishtina fared no better going down 6-0 to Swedish side Norkopping in the Europa League.
The following season saw champions Drita record the first ever Kosovan victory in Europe with a 2-0 success after extra-time in Andorra against FC Santa Coloma in the Champions League Preliminary Qualifying Round. Prishtina followed them a week later by hammering Europa FC of Gibraltar 5-0 at home in the Europa League Prelims for the first ever win on Kosovan soil – and in 90 minutes!
Since then, well-known names such as Feyenoord, Legia Warsaw, APOEL and Slovan Bratislava have all made the trip to “The Field of Blackbirds” for qualifying ties. Last season was FC Ballkani’s first ever foray into Europe and to say it went well is an understatement.
Like this year, they fell at the first hurdle in Champions League qualifying after extra-time to Zalgiris of Lithuania, which meant they dropped into the Conference League. Here, they clinically disposed of San Marino’s La Fiorita 10-0 on aggregate before squeezing through on penalties in the Faroe Islands against KI Klaksvik. This left them one round away from becoming the first Kosovan side to make the group stages of a major UEFA competition and they did so by overcoming Macedonian outfit Shkupi 3-1 over two legs.
They were drawn into a group alongside Slavia Prague, CFR Cluj and Sivasspor and, despite coming bottom of the group with just four points, had an incredible victory over Sivasspor in Turkey. In a game that saw them fall behind after less than a minute and get pegged back with an equaliser in stoppage time, Ermal Krasniqi’s 94th minute goal secured an incredible 4-3 victory on a night that will go down in the club’s history books.
Ballkani are not the only Kosovan side in European action this summer. Like the NIFL Premiership, four sides from the Superliga qualified for Europe with Gijliani, Dukagjini and Drita all entering the Conference League. The latter entered at the second round and will face a stern test against Champions League regulars Viktoria Plzen.
The former was knocked out in the first round by Luxembourg’s Progres Niederkorn while Dukagjini bested FC Europa and will now take on Rijeka of Croatia.
With regards to Ballkani, this tie with Tiernan Lynch’s men will make history as the first time sides from Kosovo and Northern Ireland will have met. This is after Linfield’s tie with Drita in 2020 was awarded to the Blues following a COVID outbreak in the Kosovan’s camp.
The two national sides met in the UEFA Nations League last year with the hosts coming out on top on both occasions. The game in June 2022 was played at the Fadil Vokrri Stadium where this Tuesday’s first leg will also be hosted. As well as hosting the national team’s games, it is the home of Prishtina but will play host to all Kosovan sides’ European exploits as the only UEFA standard stadium in the country. Ballkani’s usual home Suva Reka City Stadium holds just 1,500 spectators so the Inver Reds will line up at the 14,000 seater arena named after the Kosovan footballing legend.
Last year’s title was won in style with an 11 match unbeaten run to end the season. This is after a bit of a blip in February and March saw them winless in five and exiting the Kosovar Cup at the hands of Prishtina.
The club are managed by experienced Albanian Ilir Daja who took over from Bekim Isufi in January 2022 and steered the club the rest of the way to that historic first title and repeated the trick last season.
A big factor in last season’s success was forward Albion Rrahmani who scored 22 goals in 35 league games and was the only player from the domestic league to be called up to the national side for last month’s Euro 2024 qualifiers with Romania and Belarus. Defender Lumbardh Dellova and midfielder Lindon Emerllahu have also been recent call-ups while defender Lorenc Trashi, who joined from Kuwaiti side Qadsia this summer, is a full Albanian international.
Another Albanian, goalkeeper Enea Kolici also joined this summer from Giljani to replace his countryman Stivi Frasheri who has moved on after spending the bulk of last year between the sticks. Meanwhile, the afore-mentioned Ermal Krasniqi and Meriton Korenica will be ones to watch in this tie.
A journey into the unknown for Larne in another summer of European football but hopefully this guide means that you will be a bit more clued up to our next opponents!
Written by Mark Strange. Images courtesy of @fcballkani official Twitter acount.
