Ton up for Bosnia-Herzegovina

By Fuad Krvavac

It is exactly 100 years since football first came to Bosnia-Herzegovina, and the game continues to be a force for cohesion in the war-torn region.

Positive force
Now the oldest surviving player in Bosnia-Herzegovina, former Yugoslavian international and FK Sarajevo coach Miroslav Meho Brozovic, remembered: "Three wars devastated this country in the first part of the 20th century, but football always helped to overcome such horrors."

Taking hold
It was in 1905 that Mostar in the east of Bosnia-Herzegovina saw its first football game, but it was not until three years later when teams of students from Sarajevo and Mostar travelled to Zagreb for a match and were taught the rules of the game, that football really took hold.

Split trip
Sarajevo High School would go on to teach the rules and host training sessions, and 1908 saw a team from the city travel to Split, now in Croatia, for a game. However, not knowing what to call their opponents, the Bosnian side were named 'Osman' by their hosts.

Quick development
Brozovic said: "Football developed at the speed of light in this part of Europe," and sure enough, clubs quickly sprang up in Mostar, Tuzla, Zenica, Bihac and Banjaluka, resulting in the formation of 20 in Bosnia-Herzegovina by the outbreak of world war one, with five of them in Sarajevo.

Top billing
The proliferation of clubs was to continue between the wars as football became by far the most popular sport in Bosnia-Herzegovina, with teams from the current Bosnia-Herzegovnian Premier League like FK Željeznicar and FK Sloboda Tuzla being founded to compete with older sides like NK Zrinjski.

Early ambassadors
Football was quick to recover after the second world war. On 4 August 1945, a Željeznicar side played a game against the 38th division of the Yugoslavian army in a match that ended in a 1-1 draw. Željeznicar then became the first team in the new Yugoslavia to tour a foreign country when they travelled to Albania.

First international
With Željeznicar winning the first Bosnia-Herzegovnian league title in 1946, securing a place in the newly formed Yugoslavian football league in the process, Bosnia-Herzegovina fielded a national team for their inaugural international fixture in 1955. A 6-0 victory over China was recorded, and as time went by their club sides also began to have a major impact on the Yugoslavian league.

Domestic success
FK Sarajevo were Yugoslav champions in 1967 with rivals Željeznicar levelling the scores by claiming the title in 1972, only for Sarejevo to win it once again in 1986. Meanwhile, three-time Yugoslav league runners-up FK Velez, became Bosnia-Herzegovina's first Yugoslav Cup winners in 1981.

Bosnian presence
Velez won the Yugoslav Cup again in 1986 and FK Borac Banjaluka the title in 1988. Moreover, Yugoslavia's 1990 FIFA World Cup squad contained a plethora of Bosnians, including coach Ivica Osim, his assistant Džemaludin Mušovic and captain Faruk Hadžibegic.

Wartime ravages
The wars that followed the break up of Yugoslavia hit Bosnia-Herzegovina especially hard, but the Bosnia and Herzegovina Football Federation (NSBiH) continued to work hard to support local football and used the game as a means to reunite the community.

Global recognition
"We put tremendous effort into having the NSBiH accepted by FIFA and UEFA," said former NSBiH president Jusuf Pušina. "After many years of negotiations we finally succeeded in 1996, and our clubs started participating in European competitions in 1998."

Football reunited
Pušina continued: "We struggled hard to reunite the football association throughout our country, and successfully achieved this in 2002. In the past 10 years we have accomplished a lot in football development and will continue in this direction."