Ireland may be in two minds about whether to play Yugoslavia in its Euro2000 qualifying match on June 5th in Dublin, but the Yugoslavs have little doubt about this, their first match since NATO's bombing campaign began.
"It's a great chance to let off steam," said Goran Gocic, a London correspondent for the Belgrade opposition newspaper, Dnevni Telegraf. "In this kind of situation this match is a little bit of comfort."
Serbs know all about football embargoes. In 1992, blame for their part in the Bosnian war led to Yugoslavia being banned from that year's European Championships after the team had already qualified. The pill was all the more bitter because the team that replaced them, Denmark, went on to win the competition.
This time UEFA, Europe's football governing body, has insisted that the Yugoslav games go ahead, despite opposition from governments, including Ireland's, which says it will boycott the game in line with EU rules.
The Dublin match will be a footballing first - the first time a country is playing its matches while under aerial bombardment.
With no one even sure how long Belgrade will have a national stadium as bombs continue to rain down, the home games for the rest of Yugoslavia's qualifiers will be played in the Greek city of Thessaloniki.
Getting their players in and out of Yugoslavia for these games is not a problem because, with the economy in tatters for many years, all the internationals play abroad.
Recent weeks have seen protests by many of the players who play in countries participating in the air strikes.
These have been led by Yugoslavia's star player, Real Madrid striker Predrag Mijatovic. When Spain sent four jets to join NATO air raids in March, Mijatovic walked out on the team, refusing to play a match and being fined five million pesetas (£23,666).
In Italy, Lazio stars Dijan Mihailovic and Dan Stankovic chose a less confrontational style of protest - under the light blue tops of their Rome club, they now wear white Tshirts with a target printed in black, a sign of solidarity with the citizens of Belgrade. Whenever one of them scores a goal, he pulls off his top, baring the symbol to the cameras.
In the German league, a non-international, Mladen Lukic, broke his contract to return home from the club Meca, while in France, Bordeaux player Nisa Savelic quit to return to Montenegro, the small pro-western Yugoslav republic, to search for his parents who temporarily went missing from their home in the capital.
All international players are expected to show up in Dublin, which enjoys a special place in Serb hearts as the capital of one of the few non-NATO nations in Europe. "We're happy to be playing the Irish, Ireland or Switzerland, those are the teams," said Gocic.
"It's super to have this game, especially that we've got the Irish to play against," said Ranka Savenac (32). "This will be a healthy match because two positive nations are meeting."
Housewife Mirjana Skoco (37) said: "I don't watch football but if we play I will watch this game. I am happy it is happening. I just hope the best team wins."
Other Serbs are more provocative: "This is the right way to deal with the war - we can't fight so we have to push through underground channels, like football and rock and roll. We will destroy Ireland in this game," said Duca Markovic.
Few fans are expected to journey to Dublin for the match. With many borders closed and the roads bombed, the Yugoslav Football Association has enough problems trying to get its minimum party of three officials out of Belgrade for the game.
More problems lie ahead for Yugoslavia. Croatia, which fought to break away from Serb-dominated Yugoslavia earlier this decade, was due to play them in the first match since the fighting, four days after the air strikes began.
The match was postponed but some Croat officials, remembering their own struggle with the Serbs, say that while the fighting in Kosovo goes on they do not want to play a match against their enemy. Should Yugoslavia make it to the finals of Euro 2000 next year, it is not certain how much of their country will remain, with Kosovo and Montenegro possibly joining Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Macedonia in forming their own breakaway states.
Battered by wars, corruption, economic collapse and now NATO bombs, the one thing Yugoslavia still does well is football. After a wobbly performance in last year's World Cup finals, the team has done well in recent matches, beating Ireland 1-0 in the corresponding fixture in Belgrade last year.
Football purists looking at the galaxy of stars now performing for Yugoslavia and Croatia, with a couple of good players also in Bosnia, must wonder what might have been achieved, football-wise, had the country stayed together.
