Pristina is the epicenter of sport in Kosovo, where activity is organized across amateur and professional levels, sport organizations and clubs, regulated by the Kosovo Olympic Committee and the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport. Pristina is known for their success in Sports such as football, boxing, basketball and futsal. They compete for five seasons in the Yugoslav First League between 1983 and 1988 in which their best finish came in their first ever season in 1983-84 finishing in 8th place. In the same season they reached the Mitropa Cup finals of 1983–84, were FC Prishtina finished Runners up to Eisenstadt from Austria. as well as reaching the semifinals in the Yugoslav Cup in 1987-88.
In the 2010s, basketball was the most successful sport in Pristina as KB Prishtina won two BIBL Championships in back to back seasons 2014-15 and 2015-16 being the only Basketball Team in Kosovo to do so. Also qualifying for the FIBA Europe Cup Play-offs in 2018-19. Reaching the Round of 16 playing against Pallacanestro Varese.
Sport clubs and organizations in Pristina Sport in Pristina is organized in units called Municipal Leagues. There are seven Municipal Leagues in Pristina. The Football Municipal League consists of 18 clubs, the Basketball Municipal League consists of 5 clubs, the Handball Municipal League consists of 2 clubs, table tennis and chess consist of 6 clubs each, the Karate Municipal League consists of 15 and in the Municipal League of Tennis there are 2 clubs The list below displays some of the sport clubs registered in Kosovo's Accreditation Directorate. 89 clubs from Pristina populate the list, which apart from the more popular sports shown below also includes karate, shooting, weight lifting, swimming, skiing, taekwondo, chess, kick box, athletics, cycling, fishing, etc. Club Sport Date of registration Prishtina Football 2005 Flamurtari Football 2005 2 Korriku Football 2006 Rilindja Football 2006 Ramiz Sadiku Football 2006 Kosova Football 2006 Bardhoshi Football 2007 Prishtina Basketball 2005 Prishtina Pro Basket Basketball 2007 Eurobasket Basketball 2007 RTV21 Basketball 2012 Newborn Prishtina Basketball 2013 Prishtina (women) Handball 2005 Prishtina (men) Handball 2006 Prishtina (men) Volleyball 2008 Prishtina (women) Volleyball 2008 Universiteti i Prishtinës Volleyball 2008 Prishtina Tennis 2008 Kosova (men) Table Tennis 2005 Kosova (women) Table Tennis 2006 Shkolla e Pingpongut Table Tennis 2007 Prishtina (Men) Table Tennis 2007 Prishtina (Women) Table Tennis 2007 Gerçek Table Tennis 2007
Football in Pristina Before there were any clubs or competition, after the end of the First World War, in 1919 football was played by soldiers, officers and students who studied abroad in the Universities of France, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, England, Romania, Hungary etc. and began to return home to Pristina. One of these students, studying in France, brought the first football in Pristina in 1919. The ball was a present from a French doctor. After the arrival of the first ball in Pristina, it was mostly youngsters who kicked it around, unorganized and with no institutional support. During that time, only friendly matches were played. The city of Pristina was a small town of 16,000 citizens when in 1922, the first "blue" club named Kosova" was founded. The club consisted mainly of Pristina Garrison soldiers and did not participate in official competition due to not being registered. The oldest club of Kosovo was not competing in official levels, but was playing friendly matches with other teams, domestic and from the region. In 1926, Bashkimi football club was also founded in Pristina and consisted mainly of craftsmen. With the advantage of strong material consolidation in comparison to KF Kosova, Bashkimi was registered in the Sub league of football in Banovina, Skopje. In 1945, Bashkimi won the championship title in Kosovo, a success which they also repeated a year after. Following World War II, KF Bashkimi and KF Kosova continued to be active in the football field and they were joined by other clubs, such as Milicioneri, Bratsvo and Radniçki. In 1947, KF Bashkimi and KF Kosova merged into one club by the name of Proleter. Proleter changed its name to Jedinstvo in the 1948/1949. Jedinstvo which was strong in both economic and organizational aspect merged with Bratsvo from Pristina and Zheleznicari from Fushe Kosove. The new team named Kosova became leader in state championship by winning in two consecutive seasons during 1951/52 and 1953/54 Since 1960 the club has won 19 championship titles, including the last season of 2012/2013. During this period, KF Prishtina has become the only Kosovar football club to win the Kosovar Superliga and Kosovar Cup trophies in one season (2012/13). Their fan club is called Plisat. Some of the most notable players of this club who found their success in international clubs later on include Debatik Curri, Fadil Vokrri, Armend Dallku, Ardian Kozniku, Kushtrim Shala, Goran Dorovic, Zoran Batrovic.
1922–1926: Beginnings of FC Prishtina (Futboll Klub Kosova) Football in Kosovo has been played and developed since 1919, shortly after the end of the First World War. Many demobilized soldiers and officers, as well as students studying at universities in France, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, England, Bucharest, Budapest, and elsewhere, began to return to their home countries. Thus, a student of Samerslen College Grenoble (France) brought the first soccer ball to Pristina in 1919. This gift he had from a doctor where he came from.
After the arrival of the first ball in Pristina and Kosovo, mainly young people started running after it, but there was no organized way of playing.
Only friendly matches took place at that time. The city of Pristina was just a town with 16,000 inhabitants when in 1922 the first blue club was formed, called "Kosova". This was a club that at that time consisted of soldiers of the Pristina Garrison and did not hold official matches because it was not registered, but in its formation constantly played quality footballers of the Pristina Garrison army.
Kosovo's oldest club did not compete at official levels, but played friendly matches with other teams, meanwhile formed by the country and Macedonia. In 1926 in Pristina was formed the football club "Bashkimi", which gathered mainly craft youth. This club was materially much more consolidated than "Kosova". This team took advantage of the opportunity and registered with the Banovina Skopje Football Sub-League. There is no data on the level of competition.
1945–1970s: First success in Yugoslavian Football for FC Prishtina After the end of the war the club returned to the Yugoslav league system and played for mostly in the Yugoslav Second League. FC Prishtina won in 1945 and 1946 they won the Kosovo Province Titel and are the first Kosovar to do so but the success did not end there. In 1947 FC Prishtina wrote History for being one of the founder Clubs in the newly formed SFR Yugoslavia Cup in this Season. In their first ever cup match they played against Goce Delcev from Prilep. FC Prishtina won this match with 1-0 and qualify for the next Round. In the second round FC Prishtina had a harder tie against Rabotnicki Skopje from the second League. FC Prishtina didn't give up and won this Match away in Shkup with 1-2 and became the first Albanian club to ever reach the round of 16 in the Yugoslav Cup in their first ever cup season. In the Round of sixteen FC Prishtina had to play away against Partizan Belgrad despite a good performance they lost this match with 2-0 but it was still a success for Prishtina at that time.
FC Prishtina came close to qualify for their first time ever in the Yugoslav First League in the season 1972–73 but they lost the playoffs games against NK Osijek from Croatia and could not Progress in the main division. After losing in the home in Prishtina the leg with 1–2 and away with 0–1 in Osijek.
1981–1989: The Golden Generation
FC Prishtina was now stabilized and a scary team had been created and only its explosion was expected. The 1980/01 season was difficult both for Pristina and for the entire population of Kosovo due to the political situation that had been created. From March (1981), Dimovski will be replaced by another coach, the Hungarian from Vojvodina, Béla Pálfi (March 1981 - July 1983), who has great merit for qualifying the team in the elite and creating a great team. The team this season was forced to spend almost the entire spring season outside the city (in Kragujevac, Serbia) due to the ban on sports activity in Kosovo and had managed without any problems to rank in the middle of the table. Prishtina with Palfi, in the 1981–82 season finishes in 8th place. In the 1982–83 season, the white and blue team had finally started to make history and after 60 years of its creation, and after 20 years of struggling in the Second League, a generation, called Golden, was finally created that violated all in front of him, who had extraordinary leaders and an army of fans with an average of 30,000 per match.
There was no stopping the team from the Kosovar capital and not only that, this team had become so big that now a 22 Million Yugoslavia was afraid of him and aroused respect for him. FC Prishtina after entering the first Federal League has competed for five consecutive seasons in it. In her first year in the elite, she also played in the Central European Cup where she took second place among the four teams. In the same year, two players from Prishtina, in the same match, make their debut for the then Yugoslav national team, the strikers: Fadil Vokrri and Zoran Batrovic. For Batrovic, this was the only appearance left, while Vokrri had continued to defend the colors of the state that no longer exists. This did honor to Pristina and elevated it among the biggest teams in the country. Meanwhile, in five years of competitions in the First League, Prishtina was led by well-known Yugoslav football names. Fuad Muzurovic had been the first Pristina coach to lead the team to the highest level of the country, which had the league among the four or five strongest in Europe. Muzurovic, later the coach of Bosnia and Herzegovina, had led the team from July 1983 until the same time in 1984. Then he returned in July 1985 and led the capital from Prishtina to in August 1986.
After Muzurovic, the bench was taken over by the other strategist of the former Yugoslavia, Vukashin Vishnjevac, who, however, had not been so dear to some key players of the team, as he had withstood the pressure and his adventure in Prishtina had ended in November 1984.
Then, quite successfully for three months, the team was led by the Albanian coach, Ajet Shosholli. Shosholli until that time had been only the second Albanian coach, after Mensur Bajrami (January–April 1977), who had led the team.
Meanwhile, the position in the table had been aggravated and the leaders of the club had been forced to find a famous coach and the solution was with Miroslav Blazevic.
The lease that later with the Croatian Representative reaches the third place in "France '98", contributes to the merits of the club remaining in the First League. The lease had only lasted for two months, long enough for him to remain memorable of that time.
Prishtina continued for another three seasons in the top league and in its ranks were two other coaches of the time, Milovan orioriq (October 1986 - September 1987) and Josip Duvançi (September 1987 – June 1988), with whom Prishtina was eventually relegated from the league.