27 January 2023 – With 48 votes in favour, none against and one abstention, the new FFK Statute was approved in the Extraordinary Assembly, which was held today at the FFK HQ. This Statute was drafted by FFK, UEFA and FIFA experts. The assembly started with the singing of the national anthem whereas President Agim Ademi addressed the audience with a random speech. He emphasized that three FIFA experts, two UEFA experts and FFK experts drafted the Statute. “We had planned to approve this Statute in the regular Assembly but since the approval of the Statute was one of the criteria for licensing by MCYS, we convened the Extraordinary Assembly. I believe that the approval of this Statute will make the MCYS to licence us. The basis of this Statute is in UEFA and FIFA, as for the first time these two institutions have a unique Statute and I can say that we are lucky that we are almost the first association to apply this model statute”, said Ademi. The Assembly meeting was also welcomed by the President of KOC, Ismet Krasniqi who congratulated the drafting of the new Statute and expressed the hope that the changes made in this statute would benefit football and all clubs. On behalf of the UEFA President, Aleksandar Ceferin, Luca Nicola greeted the attendees while FIFA also addressed the Assembly with a letter and the representatives of the Ministry of Sports as well as those of the Albanian Federation of Football closely followed the Assembly’s proceedings. The representative of UEFA, Luca Nicola, during the proceedings of the Extraordinary FFK Assembly, congratulated FFK for the great work in drafting the new Statute. He first conveyed to the delegates the warmest greetings to the entire football community of Kosovo on behalf of the President of UEFA, Mr. Aleksandar Čeferin and the Secretary General of UEFA, Mr. Theodore Theodoridis. Then he spoke about the drafting process of the new Statute. “Already back in December 2021, we organized a workshop here in Prishtina with the FFK to have a first discussion on statutory reforms. The changes on which you are going to vote today are the result of exchanges both UEFA and FIFA have had with the FFK since the workshop and more intensively in the last few weeks. Initially, the new statute was supposed to be presented to the ordinary assembly later this year. However, because of the new licensing requirements and the need to abide by them as soon as possible in order to continue with the smooth running of football activities, the revision process of the statute had to be accelerated. The draft statute that is being proposed today is based on FIFA’s model statutes and we fully support their adoption. It is equally important, however, to highlight that further changes to the statute will have to be made after today’s Assembly. Namely, the membership to include more stakeholders, the congress composition to ensure a balanced representation of all stakeholders, the Executive Committee composition, a review of the number of standing committees and the introduction of a national dispute resolution chamber. Furthermore, some very specific changes will have to be made including the removal of a special quorum for certain decisions of the Assembly, the possibility for Members to change their delegates under certain well-defined and limited conditions and the number of Members required for an ExCo candidate to be proposed”, stressed Nicola. In the end, he wished that the Kosovo National Team succeeds in qualifying for Euro 2024.
Meanwhile, in the FIFA letter sent by the Director of the Member Federations of Europe, Elkhan Mammadov, the work done in the drafting of the new Statute was congratulated.
“I would like to take this opportunity to commend you on the work done to date regarding the revision of the Statue of the Football Federation of Kosovo. Together with our UEFA colleagues, we have been closely following the ongoing processes, and we are confident that the new statute that is being presented for adoption at your Assembly today is the right step towards fulfilling our shared objectives of good governance and administration. We look forward to continuing this fruitful collaboration between FIFA, UEFA and FFK in the future to further assist you in raising the standards of good governance across football,” is said in FIFA’s letter.
After the speeches, the Acting Secretary General, Taulant Hodaj, introduced some of the most important changes in the draft Statute and then opened the debate for the delegates. Three delegates expressed their dissatisfaction with the process of drafting this statute, for which they were instructed by President Ademi to present them in writing in the future and present them for approval in the next assemblies. Meanwhile, delegate Tahir Batatina congratulated the work and emphasized the need to approve this Statute in order to pave the way for the licensing of FFK by MCYS and according to him, the delay in this process is mostly harming them, the clubs. In addition to the new Statute, the Assembly delegates approved by majority of votes the Assembly Rules of Procedures as well as the Regulations of the Supervisory Council, which were also criteria for licensing by MCYS. In the end, President Ademi thanked all the delegates for their reasonable decision to approve the new Statute and emphasized that together with the EC, he will continue to protect the interests of football and the needs of the clubs. He also invited the delegates who expressed dissatisfaction and left the Assembly to call for reason, as he emphasized that it is their right to think differently but everywhere in the world democracy is like this, where the majority agrees and some do not, but said that he will work to realize their demands.
