Friday, April 01, 2011

Bosnia Banned from FIFA and UEFA

From ESPN.com:

Bosnia federation banned by FIFA, UEFA

The article is short, and sadly not surprising considering the state of other national institutions in Bosnia; the Bosnian Serb leadership of the FA refuses to give up autonomy, and therefore is hobbling the national FA. And the result is paralysis and an inability to participate internationally as a nation. The subject in this case is soccer, but the metaphor applies to the failure of the Dayton agreement in general.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

The complete selfishness of the Serb nationalists spills over into every area of Bosnian life. And the West does nothing effective to consolidate the transient stability that it sought to impose at Dayton.

Katja R. said...

Bosnians take football very seriously indeed, I remember being stuck down in Bascarsija for HOURS because of a riot by disgruntled football fans who were unhappy about corruption with the local organization for soccer. It got ugly indeed. People were chased halfway down Saraci.
And yeah the selfishness. Of course the Serb nationalists don't care. The rest of Bosnia does not matter to them. They don't want it. They only listen to Big Brother in Belgrade. :(

Asteri said...

It’s ESPN and FIFA who are actually at fault here, why should a football organisation have the right to tell a country how to organise its political system? If they hadn't done this there would be no problem.