Blood on Dzeko's shirt: what made Bosnians agree to play in Russia?

Russian football is banned because of the war in Ukraine, but the Bosnian federation chose to send the team to St. Petersburg in November for a friendly match.

The fans, the players, the journalists and the politicians are angry, but the president of the association is actually satisfied

Michael Yochin

09/15/2022

Thursday, September 15, 2022, 4:45 p.m

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Tikatku, summary of the day's events in sports, 15.9 (Sport1)

"Bosnia's national team shirt was stained with Ukrainian blood," reads a column published by Daniel Hadzovic in the Bosnian newspaper Denbni Abaz, and it expresses well the mood in the country in light of the amazing news published last week - the association agreed to hold a friendly match against Russia in November, at the stadium in St. Petersburg.

It is impossible to exaggerate the intensity of the shock and anger that the move provoked among the fans.

The social networks were filled with very harsh condemnations of the association that betrayed its people and chose the immoral step of breaking the sports boycott on the country that has been waging a murderous war against its neighbor since February in order to occupy its territories.

"I am ashamed to be Bosnian today," many wrote.

Bosnian politicians also strongly opposed the decision.

Thus, for example, the mayor of Sarajevo, Benjamina Karic, tweeted: "As the leader of a city that was under siege by an aggressor for a particularly long time, I condemn the decision to play with Russia. If it does not change,

"Playing in Russia is out of the question."

Dzeko and Pjanic in unequivocal purification (Photo: GettyImages, Claudio Villa)

It was clear in advance that the senior stars would not agree to come to the game, and they were quick to state this unequivocally.

"They called me and asked what I thought about this game, and I told them my opinion. I was surprised that a different decision was made. I have no words. I'll just say it's wrong, and they know I won't cooperate with it," said former Barcelona midfielder Miralem Pjanic.

"I am against the holding of this match, because I always support peace. As long as innocent people suffer, a match against Russia is out of the question. I stand by the Ukrainian nation in its difficult hour," Inter striker Edin Dzeko also declared.

All the other players of the first team took the same position, and the former stopper Ervin Djukanovic claimed: "It's a shame. It should be established that anyone who agrees to wear the national team shirt in this game, must not set foot on Bosnian soil again."

And meanwhile, the Russian media, mobilized in favor of the regime, celebrated the determination of the first official games for the Russian national team in 2022. In November, in addition to hosting the Bosnians, the national team will go to meetings with Kyrgyzstan and Iran, and a proud article was published in Sport Express: "The boycott does not work. Even a European team does not agree to disqualify us, For the attention of FIFA and UEFA".

The political goal of the Russians is quite clear, and it is not difficult to understand why the Iranians and the Kyrgyz are helping them, but what are the motives of the Bosnian union?

To understand them, it is important to delve into the political complexity of Bosnian football and the country as a whole.

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Bosnia vs. France (Photo: GettyImages, ELVIS BARUKCIC)

After the declaration of independence of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the end of the difficult war, an attempt was made to maintain the balance between the interests of all the peoples living in its territory.

Thus, special and exceptional regulations were established in 1995, according to which the presidency is divided between three representatives at the same time - Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian.

Since 2002, this has also been the case in the Football Association.

Instead of one president, there were three presidents who tried to make decisions together - Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian.

It was not easy at all, and the corruption problems were also very serious, but there was a certain decency.

However, in 2011, FIFA and UEFA decided to intervene because the arrangement apparently violates the laws.

"There should be only one president", they ruled and suspended the Bosnians until they "rectified the distortion".

Therefore, Bosnia had to reinvent the wheel and it was decided that there would be a single association president, with each sector taking the position for eight years - first the Bosnian, then the Serbian, then the Croatian, and God forbid.

In 2021, it was the turn of a Serbian representative, that is, of the chairman of the Republika Srpska association - the Serbian region inside Bosnia. Vico Zelkovic was elected by an overwhelming majority to the position, who was only 31 years old at the time and whose political power was enormous thanks to being the nephew of Milorad Dudik, the Serbian representative in the presidency Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Dudik is very close to Russian President Vladimir Putin, to the point of accusations that he serves as nothing more than a puppet for the dictator.

All his work is aimed at destabilizing the political stability in Bosnia for the benefit of Russia and its allies within Serbia, and this is exactly what the association is doing in the era of Zelkovic's rule - it is promoting an agenda designed to create provocations and along the way promote cronies as much as possible.

Not everything was rosy to say the least even before, but the current leadership has degraded Bosnian football to an abject low.

This is also how a coach who has nothing to do with Bosnian football - the Bulgarian Ibeilo Petev - was appointed, even though the fans demanded that the position be given to the famous former star Sergej Berberez.

This is just one example of the irregularities, the audience voted with their feet at the team's games, and there were stars who refused to be silent already last year.

Putin's associates control Bosnian football, and money works its way (Photo: Reuters)

Journalist Sasha Ibrol tweeted last season about the empty stands in the friendly match against Kuwait: "What a sad moment. Thanks to the efforts of the association, no one cares about the national team anymore."

To this, Asmir Begovic, now Everton's goalkeeper and formerly at Stoke, Chelsea and Milan, responded with amazing words for an active player who has not yet retired from the national uniform: "It is true. We are led by criminals. Zelkovic, Petev and a gang of agents. Instead of the team uniting the country , we have become an eBay site whose purpose is to fill the pockets of criminals. That's how it is."

However, even in these terms, even after all the corruption and provocations, Zelkovich's new step is seen as crossing an abnormal red line.

The point is that the president of the association also needed the votes of his fellow board members, and five of his six board members voted in favor of holding the match against Russia, including the Bosnian representative Fuad Cholpa.

He was not even ashamed to hide the motives behind his choice.

"The Russians paid well," Cholpa stated, and the fury only intensified as a result.

"The real price is an international scandal and a moral stain," wrote Daniel Hadzovich.

The issue of the financial incentive also reminded the fans and journalists in Bosnia of the strange affair in 2008, when the association chose to hold a friendly match in Iran, without informing the national coach Ho Kudro in advance.

In a publication on its behalf, it was reported that the Iranians paid 120,000 euros in order for the game to take place.

At the same time, the Iranian association reported that it paid 300 thousand euros.

The Bosnian businessmen therefore had "180,000 good reasons" to send the players to Tehran, as the media cynically wrote.

Refused the demand to play in Iran and was fired.

Kudrow on the day of his appointment to the national team in 2007 (Photo: GettyImages, d ELVIS BARUKCIC)

Kudrow, just eight months earlier, had strongly opposed it.

The former Barcelona striker, who retired from active play after a short period at Maccabi Tel Aviv, agreed to accept the position only on the condition that he would be the final authority on all matters, and demanded that this indeed be the case.

When he stood on the back foot and refused to take the team to Iran, the association chose to fire him and provoked a huge public protest.

Everyone, including all the players on the staff, lined up behind the ousted coach.

The stars chose to boycott the national team's game against Azerbaijan in the World Cup qualifiers, and came instead to a friendly match organized by Kudrow.

The media refused to cover the game against Azerbaijan, and paid respect to Kudrow's game.

The fans flocked to Kudro's game in droves, and only about 100 people came to see the match against Azerbaijan.

It was grotesque, and even if Kudrow was not reinstated - the lesson was to be learned for many years to come.

It didn't happen at all and the dictates from UEFA were deeply damaging. Now, when the Bosnian fans needed UEFA the most, it got nothing from it.

"The friendly matches are not our responsibility," was given in a short response to those who tried to find a way to cancel the match in Russia.

So the sane and non-corrupt elements will have to fight Zelkovic alone.

"I will do everything in my power so that this event does not take place. We do not need to destroy relations with the world to play there. I will try to convince the friends that we do not need it," said Azmir Husich, the only member of the board who voted against.

The players have already had their say, but the journalists and fans are pessimistic.

They predict that Zelkovic will recruit the players from his Republika Srpska for the task, and they will be happy to wear the national uniform for the only time and maybe also receive a reward under the table.

No one will know them, of course, but this will only contribute to the destruction of Bosnia from within - a very welcome by-product for Putin and Dudik.

In this context, it is amusing to recall how completely junior footballers were called up for that match against Azerbaijan in 2008.

They were so anonymous, that the afsnai tried to give a uniform even to a casual guy who entered the hotel to have coffee with his girlfriend in a restaurant.

This time it will be much less funny.

Maybe the right forces will win after all, but in the meantime the last remnants of trust between the fans and the association have completely disappeared, and the attitude towards the national team is catastrophic ahead of the important games in the League of Nations next week - Bosnia at the top of the home and on Friday will host their runner-up Montenegro, three days later they will go to Romania.

Zelkovic and sports director Zavezdan Misimovic tried to broadcast business as usual and called on the media and the audience to support the team in the meetings against Montenegro and Romania as if the plan to travel to Russia did not exist at all, but it is impossible.

Even if you close your eyes, you cannot erase the stains of Ukrainian blood from Bosnia's white shirt.

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