Consecutive losses in basketball, FBK "accepts" failure

The Kosovo Basketball Federation (FBK) admits that they are not at all satisfied with the results achieved this year with all generations at the level of representatives in both competitions. In fact, in FBK they have expected much more from the participation in different divisions of FIBA. This is what the general secretary of FBK, Elvira Dushku, insisted on Monday for KOĖN. FBK received the last disappointment on Sunday when the U16 representative in the men's competition was left without a medal in the European Championship of Division C, which was held in Prizren. Kosovo U16 had aimed for first place, but finished fourth. In fact, this is the generation from which the triumph in Division C is expected, so that next year it will appear in Division B. In fact, this generation has been under constant observation in the FBK national camp, which has established for the promotion and development of promising players. Last year, Kosovo won Division C with the U16 Representative, a success that could not be repeated this year, despite the organization of this tournament in Kosovo.

"In fact, we have expected much more from all generations. Finally, expectations were high from the U16 men and one of the main reasons was why we applied to FIBA ​​to take over the organization of this event in Kosovo. So, we wanted to organize this event in the best possible way and triumph in it", Dushku admitted. "We have realized the first one. So, the organization held in Prizren, which was also confirmed by FIBA. But we didn't manage to win and so we have one more year left to compete in Division C. We wanted to win this year to secure a place in Division B from next year."

FBK has been appearing in official FIBA ​​competitions for seven years with different generations, but so far they have only two triumphs. Last year with the U16 generation and three years ago with the U18 generation, both in the men's competition and events organized in Kosovo, precisely Pristina. The U18 generation of Kosovo will appear in Division B of the European Championship, which will be held at the end of this month in Ploiesti, Romania. Kosovo is part of Group B, along with Georgia, the Netherlands, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria and Norway. Meanwhile, the U20 men's representative has two losses in as many matches played so far. Even Representative A in this competition did not have good results in the first pre-qualifying round of Eurobasket 2025. It finished last in the group, which also consisted of Norway and Denmark with one win and three losses. In women, the results were also missing. Representative A came last (fourth) in the European Championship of Small States held a week ago in Nicosia, Cyprus. There was only one win and that was against Andorra, before being defeated by Malta, Norway and Cyprus. Last year, Kosovo's basketball players made their debut in this event with the bronze medal. The U20 representative of Kosovo in basketball (girls) finished 15th out of 18 representatives in the European Championship of Division B that ended in Skopje. Only Armenia, Croatia and Georgia remain behind Kosovo. Kosovo had only won against Croatia. It was even considered the biggest victory that the women's basketball representatives have achieved in competition so far. However, Croatia remained penultimate, 17th. Albania finished higher than Kosovo, in 14th place. Kosovo basketball players have suffered from North Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania, Iceland and Slovakia. In FBK they have already warned that they will discuss all the results achieved and the possibility of drastic changes to improve for future competitions is not excluded.

"We have been waiting a lot, starting with the men's and women's A team. We are collecting all the reports of all the selectors for all the competitions that have already ended. I believe that by the end of the week we will have them all. Next week, the board of the FBK will meet to discuss the presentations of the representatives of Kosovo so far", said Dushku.

The disappointment in the results of all generations has been confirmed by the former basketball player Ismet Ferati. He even said that these results have announced that the situation in Kosovo's basketball is not good at all. Also, it is not working well with young people either. Ferati hopes that the results of this summer will not be repeated in the future.

"The recent results of the representatives of Kosovo have informed us that the situation in Kosovo's basketball is not good and that they are not working well with young people. This summer the results are really disappointing because we have lost to some opponents that we have defeated in previous years, while many of the losses we have experienced have been by very large margins. This only shows that the work with young people in basketball clubs and schools is very poor, the coaches who work there are of dubious quality, also in the national teams, to have a more serious result, at least 40 days of joint training are needed." said Ferati. "What is more alarming is that each generation that is coming is weaker than the previous one. The biggest mistake is if this year five foreign players are allowed to play in the league, because as we saw in the case against Denmark, only the Representative suffers because local players are not getting the chance to play and progress. I hope that the results of this summer will not be repeated in the future, because they were very disappointing."