The Kosovo crisis and the NATO bombing of the former Yugoslavia have spread to the sports grounds of Europe. Some of the 40 Yugoslav players currently playing for first and second-division football and basketball clubs in Spain decided this weekend to stage a strike in protest at the bombing of their homeland.
Leading the protest was Real Madrid player Pedja Mijatovic, the Yugoslav national team captain, who led a demonstration outside the American embassy in Madrid yesterday morning with three other players. He said he felt unable to kick a ball when his compatriots were suffering at home. "It is impossible to concentrate on a game of football when such things are happening in my country."
Jokanovic, the Tenerife player, said his parents and other relatives were in bomb shelters in Novi Sad. "They are terrified. But they know they are in the right. My people know what is happening. In the rest of the world they only have the information given to them by the Americans."
Mijatovic was one of the 10 Yugoslavs playing for Spanish first division clubs who were in Belgrade last week for the international match cancelled by the conflict. He managed to bring his girlfriend and three-year-old son, Luka, out of the country with him. "I saw bombs falling and I saw the fear of the people. It is something that you cannot describe in words. It was the worst moment of my life." Mijatovic as well as Stojkovic, who plays for Grampus Eight of Japan, and Savicevic of Red Star Belgrade, signed a communique calling on all Yugoslav players to stage their strike until the bombing came to an end.
The initiative has not been supported by all Yugoslavs who play in Spain. Radomir Antic, who only last week signed a contract to manage the Atletico Madrid team for the second time, was one of the leaders of a group who favoured playing but with the players wearing black armbands. "It is better to make our point by being seen in public," he said before flying to England for a game against Middlesbrough. Others said they would play, but with protest slogans printed on their shirts.
Because of the international on Saturday night when Spain beat Austria 9-0, there were no first division games this weekend, and so the strength of support for the protest will not be fully felt until later this week. The second division game between Malaga and Atletico B was the first match to be hit by the boycott when Malaga goalkeeper Dragoje Lekovic received orders from his national federation ordering him to support the strike only hours before the start of the game.
Miroslav Djukoc, the Valenica defender, said he would not be playing with his team. "NATO identifies Milosevic with the Yugoslav people. But Milosevic is safe in his shelter while it is the people of Yugoslavia who are suffering the bombing raids."