{"id":80270,"date":"2025-09-15T21:03:51","date_gmt":"2025-09-15T19:03:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/?p=80270"},"modified":"2025-09-15T21:45:05","modified_gmt":"2025-09-15T19:45:05","slug":"official-serbia-albania-match-will-not-be-played-in-belgrade-moved-to-leskovac","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/official-serbia-albania-match-will-not-be-played-in-belgrade-moved-to-leskovac\/","title":{"rendered":"Official: Serbia\u2013Albania Match Will Not Be Played in Belgrade, Moved to Leskovac"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It has now been officially confirmed by UEFA that the World Cup 2026 qualifier between Serbia and Albania will not take place in Belgrade.<\/p>\n<p>The match is scheduled for October 11 and will be played at the \u201cGradski stadion Dubo\u010dica\u201d in the city of Leskovac, near the border with Kosovo.<\/p>\n<p>The decision was made for security reasons, in order to avoid potential tensions in a fixture that has, in the past, gone far beyond the boundaries of football.<\/p>\n<p>The relocation from Belgrade\u2019s \u201cRajko Miti\u0107 Stadium\u201d was initially requested by the Serbian Football Association itself, and later approved by UEFA, following the agreement of the Albanian Football Association due to high-risk assessments.<\/p>\n<p>A decision regarding the presence of fans is still pending, after the problematic behavior of Serbian supporters during the recent match against England.<\/p>\n<p>Both teams are part of Group K: Albania has collected 8 points from five matches, while Serbia follows closely with 7 points from four games.<\/p>\n<p>The match will kick off on October 11 at 20:45, against the backdrop of memories from the infamous incident of October 14, 2014, when the Serbia\u2013Albania match in Belgrade was marred by serious tensions and had to be abandoned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It has now been officially confirmed by UEFA that the World Cup 2026 qualifier between Serbia and Albania will not take place in Belgrade. The match is scheduled for October 11 and will be played at the \u201cGradski stadion Dubo\u010dica\u201d in the city of Leskovac, near the border with Kosovo. The decision was made for [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":80271,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[163,1803],"tags":[243,151],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Official: Serbia\u2013Albania Match Will Not Be Played in Belgrade, Moved to Leskovac - Euronews Albania<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/official-serbia-albania-match-will-not-be-played-in-belgrade-moved-to-leskovac\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Official: Serbia\u2013Albania Match Will Not Be Played in Belgrade, Moved to Leskovac - Euronews Albania\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It has now been officially confirmed by UEFA that the World Cup 2026 qualifier between Serbia and Albania will not take place in Belgrade. The match is scheduled for October 11 and will be played at the \u201cGradski stadion Dubo\u010dica\u201d in the city of Leskovac, near the border with Kosovo. The decision was made for [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/official-serbia-albania-match-will-not-be-played-in-belgrade-moved-to-leskovac\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Euronews Albania\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/euronews.al\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-09-15T19:03:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-09-15T19:45:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/maxresdefault-5.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Nen Si\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@euronewsalbania\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@euronewsalbania\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Nen Si\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/official-serbia-albania-match-will-not-be-played-in-belgrade-moved-to-leskovac\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/official-serbia-albania-match-will-not-be-played-in-belgrade-moved-to-leskovac\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Nen Si\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/444d280f35e047949b7f0bc08093608f\"},\"headline\":\"Official: Serbia\u2013Albania Match Will Not Be Played in Belgrade, Moved to Leskovac\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-09-15T19:03:51+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-09-15T19:45:05+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/official-serbia-albania-match-will-not-be-played-in-belgrade-moved-to-leskovac\/\"},\"wordCount\":206,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/official-serbia-albania-match-will-not-be-played-in-belgrade-moved-to-leskovac\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/maxresdefault-5.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"kryesore 1\",\"Kryesoret\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Kosovo\",\"Latest news\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/official-serbia-albania-match-will-not-be-played-in-belgrade-moved-to-leskovac\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/official-serbia-albania-match-will-not-be-played-in-belgrade-moved-to-leskovac\/\",\"name\":\"Official: Serbia\u2013Albania Match Will Not Be Played in Belgrade, Moved to Leskovac - Euronews Albania\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/official-serbia-albania-match-will-not-be-played-in-belgrade-moved-to-leskovac\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/official-serbia-albania-match-will-not-be-played-in-belgrade-moved-to-leskovac\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/maxresdefault-5.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-09-15T19:03:51+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-09-15T19:45:05+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/official-serbia-albania-match-will-not-be-played-in-belgrade-moved-to-leskovac\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/official-serbia-albania-match-will-not-be-played-in-belgrade-moved-to-leskovac\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/official-serbia-albania-match-will-not-be-played-in-belgrade-moved-to-leskovac\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/maxresdefault-5.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/maxresdefault-5.jpg\",\"width\":1280,\"height\":720},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/official-serbia-albania-match-will-not-be-played-in-belgrade-moved-to-leskovac\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Official: Serbia\u2013Albania Match Will Not Be Played in Belgrade, Moved to Leskovac\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/\",\"name\":\"Euronews Albania\",\"description\":\"Top stories in Albania, Kosovo and the Balkans\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Euronews Albania\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/logo-mobile-euronews-albania-1.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/logo-mobile-euronews-albania-1.png\",\"width\":280,\"height\":33,\"caption\":\"Euronews Albania\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/euronews.al\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/euronewsalbania\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/444d280f35e047949b7f0bc08093608f\",\"name\":\"Nen Si\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/euronews.al\/en\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/author\/nensi\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Official: Serbia\u2013Albania Match Will Not Be Played in Belgrade, Moved to Leskovac - Euronews Albania","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/official-serbia-albania-match-will-not-be-played-in-belgrade-moved-to-leskovac\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Official: Serbia\u2013Albania Match Will Not Be Played in Belgrade, Moved to Leskovac - Euronews Albania","og_description":"It has now been officially confirmed by UEFA that the World Cup 2026 qualifier between Serbia and Albania will not take place in Belgrade. The match is scheduled for October 11 and will be played at the \u201cGradski stadion Dubo\u010dica\u201d in the city of Leskovac, near the border with Kosovo. The decision was made for [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/official-serbia-albania-match-will-not-be-played-in-belgrade-moved-to-leskovac\/","og_site_name":"Euronews Albania","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/euronews.al\/","article_published_time":"2025-09-15T19:03:51+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-09-15T19:45:05+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1280,"height":720,"url":"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/maxresdefault-5.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Nen Si","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@euronewsalbania","twitter_site":"@euronewsalbania","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Nen Si","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/official-serbia-albania-match-will-not-be-played-in-belgrade-moved-to-leskovac\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/official-serbia-albania-match-will-not-be-played-in-belgrade-moved-to-leskovac\/"},"author":{"name":"Nen Si","@id":"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/444d280f35e047949b7f0bc08093608f"},"headline":"Official: Serbia\u2013Albania Match Will Not Be Played in Belgrade, Moved to Leskovac","datePublished":"2025-09-15T19:03:51+00:00","dateModified":"2025-09-15T19:45:05+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/official-serbia-albania-match-will-not-be-played-in-belgrade-moved-to-leskovac\/"},"wordCount":206,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/official-serbia-albania-match-will-not-be-played-in-belgrade-moved-to-leskovac\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/maxresdefault-5.jpg","keywords":["kryesore 1","Kryesoret"],"articleSection":["Kosovo","Latest news"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/official-serbia-albania-match-will-not-be-played-in-belgrade-moved-to-leskovac\/","url":"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/official-serbia-albania-match-will-not-be-played-in-belgrade-moved-to-leskovac\/","name":"Official: Serbia\u2013Albania Match Will Not Be Played in Belgrade, Moved to Leskovac - Euronews Albania","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/official-serbia-albania-match-will-not-be-played-in-belgrade-moved-to-leskovac\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/official-serbia-albania-match-will-not-be-played-in-belgrade-moved-to-leskovac\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/maxresdefault-5.jpg","datePublished":"2025-09-15T19:03:51+00:00","dateModified":"2025-09-15T19:45:05+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/official-serbia-albania-match-will-not-be-played-in-belgrade-moved-to-leskovac\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/official-serbia-albania-match-will-not-be-played-in-belgrade-moved-to-leskovac\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/official-serbia-albania-match-will-not-be-played-in-belgrade-moved-to-leskovac\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/maxresdefault-5.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/maxresdefault-5.jpg","width":1280,"height":720},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/official-serbia-albania-match-will-not-be-played-in-belgrade-moved-to-leskovac\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Official: Serbia\u2013Albania Match Will Not Be Played in Belgrade, Moved to Leskovac"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/#website","url":"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/","name":"Euronews Albania","description":"Top stories in Albania, Kosovo and the Balkans","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/#organization","name":"Euronews Albania","url":"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/logo-mobile-euronews-albania-1.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/logo-mobile-euronews-albania-1.png","width":280,"height":33,"caption":"Euronews Albania"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/euronews.al\/","https:\/\/x.com\/euronewsalbania"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/444d280f35e047949b7f0bc08093608f","name":"Nen Si","sameAs":["http:\/\/euronews.al\/en"],"url":"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/author\/nensi\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80270"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80270"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80270\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80272,"href":"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80270\/revisions\/80272"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}