The coach of the Macedonian champion assures that his club will not use playing in Europe to postpone domestic league matches.

photo by KF Shkëndija Tetovo: Jeton Bekjiri

Shkëndija has a long autumn ahead of them: they will play in Europe until the end of the year, which means they will often play two games a week, which is a fairly tight schedule for a Macedonian team.

After Thursday’s win over Bulgarian side Ludogorets in the playoff for Europa League qualification, coach Jeton Bekjiri assures that Shkëndija will not request a postponement of the 1.MFL matches.

“I don’t want a domestic championship match to be postponed due to a performance in Europe. That would show disrespect for the players we have and the domestic league, which is very important to us,” said Bekjiri, adding:

“We are paid to play and we should play whenever we are asked to. If we postpone matches, we will have to place them somewhere later, we play in Europe until December, and we also have matches from the Macedonian Cup, where would we place those matches? We need to respect all competitions and play in all of them according to the schedule.”

If they eliminate Ludogorets, Shkëndija will play in the Europa League league phase, where 8 matches are played. If they lose, they are still guaranteed a place in the Conference League league phase, where they have two matches less – 6. Wherever they will play, the autumn will be long.

Shkëndija has been playing in Europe and the first league at the same time so far. On Thursday they had a European match, on Sunday there is a domestic league match, and next Thursday there is the return match with the Bulgarian team.