Liverpool winger Xherdan Shaqiri has been excluded from the squad that will face Red Star Belgrade tomorrow. The reason why Shaqiri is out of Liverpool’s squad is purely political.
Liverpool have left out Shaqiri out of worry of how the Serbian fans in Belgrade will treat him due to his ancestry. Shaqiri is of Kosovar-Albanian ancestry. Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008 after a long, bloody fight between the Serbs and Kosovar-Albanian rebels. However, Serbia does not recognise Kosovo as an independent country.
During the 2018 World Cup, Shaqiri scored the winner for Switzerland against Serbia. After scoring the winner, Shaqiri celebrated by crossing his hands to make a double eagle gesture to pay homage to Albania. Granit Xhaka also did a similar celebration after scoring in the same match. FIFA fined both players 10,000 Swiss Francs.
Jurgen Klopp said of Shaqiri’s omission, “It’s a situation where we will go to the fantastic city of Belgrade as a football team to play football. We have heard and read the speculation and talk about what kind of reception Shaq would receive and although we have no idea what would happen, we want to go there and be focused 100 per cent on football and not have to think about anything else, that’s all.
We are Liverpool FC, a big club, a football team but we don’t have any message further than that. We have no political message, absolutely not. We want the focus to be on a great game of football, free from anything else. We are keen to be respectful and keen to avoid any distractions that would take focus away from a 90-minute-plus contest that is important for football and only football.
So for that reason, Shaq is not involved and he accepts and understands this. Shaq is our player, we love him, and he will play for us a lot of times, but not on Tuesday.”
Liverpool will also be without Jordan Henderson for the match. However, Naby Keita and Dejan Lovren are included in the squad.