Bosnian football on the brink

There’s no escape now, Vedad

A vote in Sarajevo this week may have certified the end of international careers for the likes of Edin Džeko, Vedad Ibišević, and Asmir Begović. They are just three of the better known Bosnian footballers– a group that missed out on South Africa only after losing a playoff with Portugal– who would be shut out of the coming European Championship qualifiers (and beyond) if the Bosnia Football Federation (FSBIH) continues to resist Fifa and UEFA’s push to reform their institution.

The initiative to absolve the body’s tri-partite governance in exchange for a single, elected president was rejected by more than half of the 60 voting delegates on Monday. It would have needed a two-thirds majority to pass. The system in place splits the federation’s leadership up along ethnic lines, with each of the three top officials given equal power. A review of the vote shows the Muslim delegation (Bosniaks) in favor of restructuring along Fifa and UEFA guidelines, with the Serbs against, and Croats abstaining.

Bosnia and Herzegovina, you might recall, was once part of the greater Yugoslavia, and stood at the center of Europe’s bloodiest ethnic war of the last 60 years. Independence and entry into Fifa came  in 1996, with a Uefa allowance following two years later.

The Bad Old Days

The Bosnians now face an existential crisis of a different nature. Euro 2012 qualification is set to begin in September, but a Fifa Executive Board meeting set for the end of the next month could see the federation banned from all internationally sanctioned competition– a decision that manager Safet Sušić says would cause him to resign.

Sušić says he will lobby the governing bodies for more time, but conceded the obvious.

“It’s known that UEFA forbids any form of political interference into the work of the Football Federation,” he told the Mostar-based Dnevni List, “and it is obvious that what happened has nothing to do with sports but with politics.”

E Pluribus Unum, yo!

What’s unclear in published reports is just how long Fifa and UEFA have been pushing for these reforms. The system in question has been in place, with a few tweaks, since the end of the Bosnian War. To demand the Football federation become apolitical in the space of a few months would be ridiculous; and to wit, just like something Sepp Blatter and Fifa would do.

The absence of politics and politicians from a federation is certainly a desirable result, but for a young nation still picking through its historical mulch, there must be patience. This is precisely the kind of fight that could pull a bit too hard at the strings holding the country together. Already, a major Serb separatist leader has called for his region to break away and form its own football association.

The last, best hope for this edition of the Bosnian national team will likely come in the middle of September, when the FSBIH votes in a new group of leaders. In their campaigning, the hopefuls will be forced to confront the looming Fifa decision, along with fans and players who have long been opposed to the tri-partite divide.