Violence forces Borac ground closure

The Bosnia and Herzegovina Football Federation (NSBiH) has banned FK Borac Banja Luka from playing at their Gradski stadium after trouble among the home supporters during last weekend's league match against FK Zeljeznicar.

Indefinite ban
The competition committee of the NSBiH imposed an indefinite ban until its disciplinary body has ruled on the case. "We have forwarded all relevant documentation to the disciplinary commission and we expect them to rule on how many matches Borac will be banned from playing at their home ground, or if they will have to play matches behind closed doors," said Sulejman Colakovic, president of the competition committee.

Pitch invasion
Nine Borac supporters were detained after Saturday's match in which some of them invaded the pitch and threw flares at a section of Zeljeznicar fans. After Borac's 2-0 victory, some home supporters fought with police, injuring three officers, before breaking windows on a bus carrying Zeljeznicar supporters. None were injured.

New league
Borac are one of six newly promoted clubs from the Serbian part of Bosnia (Republika Srpska) while Zeljeznicar come from the capital Sarajevo whose population is mainly Muslim. The Serbian clubs joined 14 from the Muslim-Croat federation earlier this year to form the current league. Defending champions Zeljeznicar lie third in the league while Borac are tenth.

Second incident
Saturday's violence was only the second such incident since the league began in August. Colakovic said it was difficult to prevent verbal abuse at stadiums but match officials should have ordered the removal of banners with nationalistic, threatening and insulting slogans.

Making a stand
"We are emphasising that we will have a radical approach to any other incident of this kind," Colakovic said. "We will make the same stand against every club in Bosnia. We cannot shut our eyes to these things, especially not in the face of nationalistic outbursts."