NATIONAL AND KAPODISTRIAN UNIVERSITY OF ATHENS

FACULTY OF LAW, ECONOMICS AND POLITICAL SCIENCE

DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCE AND PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

MASTER’S DEGREE IN SOUTHEAST EUROPEAN STUDIES

MASTER‟S DEGREE THESIS

FOOTBALL AND RECONCILIATION IN POST-WAR

BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA

Supervisor: Student:

Dr. Ioannis Armakolas Ia Pozovi

Athens, September 2014

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Dedication

This thesis is dedicated to my family: to my father – Iuri Pozovi, mother - Lia Rosebishvili-

Pozovi, brother – Lasha Pozovi and my aunt – Bella-Liana Rossebishvili. I don‟t think I would

have grown into the person I am without their influence!

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Acknowledgments

Many thanks to my thesis supervisor Dr. Ioannis Armakolas for his enthusiastic support and

guidance through every step of this project, and for all he has taught me.

I would like to thank also Dr. Anna Vallianatou, for her office door being always open and for

her patient guidance, encouragement and advice she has provided throughout my studies at the

National and Kapodistrian University of Athens.

Sincere thanks to my fellow colleague Marine Patrie, who made the working process easier with

her advice and encouragement!

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Acronyms

BBB Bad Blue Boys (Fan club of Dynamo Zagreb)

BiH Bosnia and Herzegovina

CCPA Cross Cultures Project Association

ESPN Entertainment and Sports Programming Network

FIFA Fédération Internationale de Football Association

FC Football Club

FYROM Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia

F4P Football for Peace

ICTY International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia

IOC International Olympic Committee

LICE Life and Change Experience thru Sport

NBA National Basketball Association of the United States

NFSBiH Football Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina

NGO Non-governmental Organization

RS Republika Srpska (Republic of Serbs)

RTRS Radio-Television of Republika Srpska

SIDA Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency

UEFA Union of European Football Associations

UN United Nations

UNDP United Nations Development Programme

UNICEF United Nations Children‟s Fund

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Table of Contents Abstract .......................................................................................................................................... vi

Chapter I: Introduction .................................................................................................................... 7

Theoretical Framework ................................................................................................................. 11

Literature Review.......................................................................................................................... 15

Methodology ................................................................................................................................. 19

Chapter II: Football and Identity................................................................................................... 20

Chapter III: Football and Nationalism .......................................................................................... 23

Chapter IV: Football and Reconciliation ...................................................................................... 29

IV.1. Open Fun Football Schools (OFFS)................................................................................. 34

IV.2. National League of Bosnia ............................................................................................... 37

IV.3. Bosnian National Football Team ..................................................................................... 40

Conclusion .................................................................................................................................... 45

Bibliography: ................................................................................................................................ 47

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Abstract

This thesis intends to explore the inter-ethnic relations and reconciliation in post-war Bosnia and

Herzegovina. The football will be examined as the potential tool for reconciliation. Academic

treatment of football mainly has been focused on the games capacity to trigger violence, conflicts

and even wars; or how it promotes hooliganism and hatred; or how it has been used by political

leaders for their nationalistic interests. In this paper the issue of football and nationalism,

identity-building and reconciliation will be discussed. I will argue that, theoretically football has

the real capacity of promoting reconciliation; however, due to the complexity of the Bosnian

case, football can be used as the potential tool for reconciliation only on the grassroots level in

post-war Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Keywords: Inter-ethnic relations; reconciliation; Bosnia and Herzegovina; nationalism; identity;

conflict.

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Chapter I: Introduction

Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) represented the most multi-ethnic and multi-faith republic of

former Yugoslavia, where three main ethnic groups – Bosniaks (secular name of Bosnian

Muslims), Croats and Serbs – used to live next to each other peacefully during centuries; for this

reason BiH was accurately described as the „Yugoslavia in miniature‟ by Joseph Marko (2000:

p.1). This once multi-ethnic country was torn by the most destructive war (1992-1995) of Europe

since World War II with an estimated 140,000 casualties and two million people displaced. The

Dayton Peace Accords of 1995, brokered by the United States, helped to end the war in Bosnia

but divided the country on ethnic lines: mostly Serb populated Republika Srpska (Republic of

Serbs), the Federation of Bosniaks and Croats and neutral, self-governing Brčko district. The

state itself has to be run on a complex system of rotating presidencies, retaining central control of

monetary policy, foreign policy, immigration, air traffic control and several others (Dayton

Peace Accords. Annex 4, Article III. 1995: p.63).

During the war the religion and ethnicity was going hand in hand in Bosnia: Bosniaks were

identified with Islam, Croats with Roman Catholicism and Serbs with Orthodoxy. These

identifications are still very visible in modern day BiH. People, who once coexisted peacefully,

transformed from neighbors to bitter enemies. The society became divided between „us‟ and

„them‟. As Blagojević (2012: p.117) mentions, dehumanization plays an important role both in

the process leading to war and in its aftermath. Although the war ended almost two decades ago,

the inter-ethnic relations in Bosnia are still problematic. Separate political and educational

systems contribute to further division of the country; needless to mention nationalist politicians,

media and their negative influence on reconciliation. With the decay of Yugoslav Federation,

ethnicity and nationalism became the main basis to gain political legitimacy and power in BiH.

Inter-ethnic trust was broken and separated, mono-ethnic life-worlds were created. Rebuilding

broken trust and lives after the war is complex and difficult task. However, reconciliation is

necessary, as Bosnian people continue to live next to each other and their antagonistic behavior

affects negatively not only the country, but their lives and future.

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The thesis focuses on the issue of football and reconciliation; more specifically on football‟s

potential role in the process of post-war reconciliation. Since the Dayton Peace Accords was

signed, the issue of reconciliation has been very trustworthy. Several programmes have been

established and various international or regional organizations have tried to promote the

reintegration of Bosnian society; however, the process remains complicated. International

Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), established by the United Nations (UN) and

based in the Hague, has been criticized by many for not being helpful in the process of

reconciliation; however, 2004 documentary „Justice Unseen‟ directed by Aldin Arnautović and

Refik Hodzić, argues that the purpose of the Tribunal is the following: 1) to do justice; 2) to

deter further crimes, and 3) to contribute to the restoration and maintenance peace. Therefore,

ICTY is not responsible for reconciliation directly. As Hodzić mentions himself in the

documentary, the reconciliation should be promoted from within, from the Bosnian society

(„Justice Unseen‟, 2004).

In modern day Bosnia reconciliation sometimes loses its topicality and people become more

focused on something more important for that time, such as elections. The qualification of

Bosnian national football team for World Cup 2014 re-activated the talks about possible

reconciliation once again. The team is one and the only multi-ethnic organization in the country;

therefore it is not by chance that Bosnians and international media as well, could see the sparkle

of hope for future reconciliation. For them the Dragons (the nickname of the national team) were

the clear evidence that peaceful coexistence of Bosniaks, Croats and Serbs is possible. But, can

football really promote reconciliation in post-war Bosnia and Herzegovina? Is football enough to

overcome the ethnic differences and forget the bloody past? The above-mentioned questions

represent the research questions of this thesis. I would argue that theoretically speaking, football

has the real potential to promote reconciliation; however, the case of Bosnia is complex and

problematic. On the grassroots level reconciliation can be promoted by football and can be

successful, on the higher level – it cannot, as we are dealing with much more serious problems,

such as structural and systemic separation of the country. Therefore, top-down level

reconciliation requires more effort – one of them among many others is the willingness of the

political leaders for the structural reforms. The hypothesis of the thesis is the following – in post-

war Bosnia, due to the complexity of the case, football can promote reconciliation on the

grassroots level; while it cannot guarantee the successful reconciliation on the national level.

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The main reason I have decided to pick the issue of reconciliation and football for the thesis is

the following: Bosnia and Herzegovina has always been in my area of interest due to its

complexity and uniqueness. I have always wondered how did the former neighbors and friends

decide to kill each other one day. To explain this phenomenon, I have to agree with Anthony

Oberschall (2000: p.982), who believed that there were two ethnic frames in former Yugoslavia:

1) ethnic cooperation and peace frame for normal times and 2) crisis frame – grounded in the

experiences and memories of Balkan wars, First and Second World Wars. He argues that „crisis

frame‟ had been successfully used by nationalist leaders who used different propaganda

machines to convince their people that „others‟ would take guns and fight against them. But

mostly I was interested how do people live in post-conflict Bosnia? Did they overcome or forget

the bloody and violent past? Do they live peacefully? Did they reconcile? To answer all (or at

least half of my questions), I have decided to write about inter-ethnic relations and reconciliation

in post-war BiH. The reason I decided to pick football as a tool of reconciliation, is my deep

fascination with football. Additionally, during the World Cup 2014 I was in Sarajevo; the

atmosphere and admiration of the national team, made me decide to dedicate my thesis to the

football as the possible tool for reconciliation.

Playing football does not automatically lead to well-being and reconciliation, obviously.

However, sport has the potential for uniting people in the divided communities. As Sugden

(2010: p.262) argues, „sport is essentially neither good nor bad. It is a social construct and its role

and function depends largely on what we make of it and how it is consumed‟. As the mobilizer

of masses, football can either be used as a tool to foster hostilities or as a tool to promote peace

and reconciliation. The idea of using sports for peace endeavors dates back to the ancient times

and the Olympic Truce. However, there is still limited empirical research in the field and the

main difficulty with the topic is measuring success, as we are dealing with such intangible issues

such as reconciliation and identity, which are not visible and fixed.

Cwik (2008: p.8) considers football as an international language. The National Geographic has

suggested that football is not the number one sport in fewer than thirty countries and in such

cases, for example in China, Ireland or US, it is stipulated by the popularity of culturally

distinctive national sports. It is easy to follow and participate in football (National Geographic

cited in Hough, 2008: p.1299). Hough also argues that by nature football is egalitarian, as

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everyone can participate in it and unlike many other sports there are no specific physical

requirements to be met.

The potential to be tool for reconciliation and peace-building of football has been recognized by

the United Nations (UN) as well. In 2005, then Secretary General Kofi Annan launched the

International Year of Sport and Physical Education and declared: „Sport is a universal language.

At its best it can bring people together, no matter what their origin, background, religious beliefs

or economic status‟; and added that people playing sport learn the ideals of teamwork and

tolerance (UN Secretary-General Press release, 2004). The President of FIFA (International

Federation of Association Football) Stepp Blatter is remembered by his announcement „ make

goals not war‟, when in 2004 encouraged Brazilian team to play the friendly match against Haiti,

only a few months after the Haitian President was ousted by bloody revolt.

Using football as a potential tool for reconciliation in Bosnia has its roots and reasons. In spite of

religious and ethnic differences, football remains the most beloved sport of three ethnic groups.

It has always been used as a promoter of multi-ethnicity in Tito‟s Yugoslavia. However, with the

death of Tito and the collapse of Socialist Yugoslavia, nationalist political leaders started to use

football for the promotion of their nationalistic interests. During the war many football fan

groups were transformed into paramilitary units.

Despite such controversial history of football, people still have the belief that it can unite and

reconcile post-war Bosnia and Herzegovina. The „Dragons‟ represent the only institution that is

multi-ethnic in the country. Their qualification for the 2014 World Cup raised the hopes among

Bosnian population and internationally for the future reconciliation. May be some people even

recalled the case of Ivory Coast, its qualification for World Cup 2006 and the role that Didier

Drogba played for the reconciliation for his country.

The thesis is divided into three chapters: Introduction, theoretical framework, methodology and

literature review are the parts of the first chapter. The second chapter deals with the issue of

football and identity. The third chapter examines the relation between sport and nationalism, as

the existing academic literature mainly associates football with nationalism, hooliganism and

violence. In the fourth chapter I examine the issue of football and reconciliation. I present three

short case-studies that will give the reader idea about the role of football in the process of

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reconciliation in BiH. The first case-study discusses the Open Fun Football Schools (OFFS)

programme; the second case discusses the story behind the establishment of Bosnian national

football league and the third one examines the National Football Team of Bosnia and its

potential role in reconciliation. The conclusive part of the thesis will answer the research

questions and sum up the main findings of the research.

Theoretical Framework Since the thesis deals with the issue of reconciliation, first we should define what we mean by

reconciliation and what is the etymology of it. Online Etymology Dictionary

(www.etymonline.com) suggests that reconciliation (noun) comes from Old French

reconciliacion (14th

century) and directly from Latin reconciliationem (normative –

reconciliation) that means „reestablishing‟. Verb „reconcile‟ comes directly from Latin

reconciliare that means „to bring together again; regain; win over again; conciliate; make friendly

again‟. Brouneus (2003: p.13) explains that despite the differentiation of Latin and German base

words of reconciliation, the term holds the same meaning – the re-establishment of peace or

friendship.

Although there is an extensive interest in reconciliation, the concept, as many of social sciences,

is vague and there is no agreed definition of it. Staub and Pearlman (2001: p.) define

reconciliation as mutual acceptance by groups of each other. Generally speaking, I believe that

only mutual acceptance cannot lead towards reconciliation. Groups or communities may

theoretically accept each other and even live next to each other, however remain antagonistic.

For Galtung (2001: p.8) the process to peace –building includes 3Rs or key factors. Second R for

him means reconciliation of the parties in conflict, and defines reconciliation as „closure +

healing‟. By closure Galtung means not opening of hostilities, while healing is the sense of being

rehabilitated. I would agree with Galtung‟s definition, but for successful reconciliation the

acknowledgment of past sufferings and violence by all sides (victims and perpetrators) is needed

as well. It is difficult to measure or define who are victims and who perpetrators in many

conflicts. This paper does not intend to research who started the war and what was the reason of

it; or who suffered more – Bosniaks, Croats or Serbs. Instead I argue that all three parts suffered,

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they all committed atrocities and all of them have to acknowledge it. In this thesis the

reconciliation would be used as the following – „the rebuilding of previous (pre-war) relations;

the acknowledgment of all suffering and atrocities by all sides; the breaking of post-war ice of

seeing „others‟ (representatives of other ethnic groups) as enemies – stereotypes and the

movement from the divided past to the shared future‟.

Fischer (2011: p.415) claims that the need for reconciliation is particularly necessary for the

societies that have gone through ethno-political conflict. Such consideration is quite relevant to

the Bosnian case. Although it is very risky to label the war in Bosnia of being ethnic, civil or

religious, we should agree that religion and ethnicity were going hand in hand during the war:

Bosniaks were affiliated with Islam, Croats with Roman Catholicism and Serbs with Orthodox

Christianity. Fischer (2011: p.415) argues that such conflicts are always marked with trauma and

grievances, the loss of trust and polarization. I would add that reconciliation is mainly needed for

the societies that continue to live next to each other, i.e. the case of BiH. Dayton Peace Accords

(1995) ended the war in Bosnia; however, it also divided the county on ethnic lines. Multi-ethnic

cities and villages as used to be in the Yugoslav era, have been replaced by mainly mono-ethnic

ones. Bosniaks, Croats and Serbs continue to live in the same country, but separated on ethnic

lines. This separation and existing ethnic animosities affect not only the well-being and well-

functioning of the country, but promotes unhealthy human relationships as well. War memories

have stigmatized the society; for successful reconciliation Bosnians should not see the past as

defining their future.

Reconciliation itself is rather the process than state or outcome. Most of the scholars believe that

the process is extremely difficult – „needless to say, the road to reconciliation is long and

tortuous‟ (Ramsbotham, Woodhouse and Miall, 2005: p.232). For Hamber and Kelly (2008:

p.282) „… a reconciliation process always contains paradoxes, tensions and even contradictions‟.

There are different tools for reconciliation. The thesis examines sport and particularly football as

the potential tool of reconciliation in post-war Bosnia and Herzegovina. Therefore, it is

important to discuss what scholars say about the role of football in reconciliation. Although there

is growing interest about the football and reconciliation, unfortunately there is limited research in

this field. Mainly existing literature focuses on the issue of football and nationalism, football and

hooliganism and the football as the cause of conflicts. English writer George Orwell (1945)

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referred to football as a „war minus shooting‟. Football really has the capacity and potential of

organizing and unifying masses. Football can also be capable of awakening nationalistic

sentiments, intolerance and violence. Parasović-Trost and Kovacević (2013: p.1054) mention

that sport in general and football in particular, has been proven for triggering of national identity,

and its mobilized form, nationalism. Jackson and Haigh (2009: p.1) explain that „sport has long

served as an important source of collective identification and is perhaps one of the most powerful

and visible symbols of national identity and nationalism‟. Hobsbawm (1990: p.143) notes that in

the interwar period, international sport became an expression of national struggle; sportsmen

were representing their imagined communities as they represented their nations and states. Billig

(1995) argues that signaling of national solidarity through sport is one of the forms of banal

nationalism. There are many examples in world history that football matches transformed into

violent incident or war (the case of El Salvador and Honduras; will be discussed in the chapter of

„Football and Nationalism‟).

However, I would argue that football has the potential for reconciliation and bringing

antagonistic communities together. The idea of using sports for peace endeavors is not a new

concept. In the 9th

century BC, in ancient Greece the „Olympic Truce‟ was established. During

the Truce period, athletes, artists and their families could travel in total safety to participate in or

attend the Olympic Games and return afterwards to their respective countries (Olympic.org.

2009). Sport has the capacity to foster friendship and to unite people around a common activity

even in the most unexpected circumstance. The famous Christmas Truce of 1914 is a very

obvious example when German and English troops stopped hostilities during World War I to

exchange gifts and as reported by several sources to play football. Football, being the first most

popular sport in the world has the ability for social cohesion. Cardenas (2012: p.4) argues „…

football has recently been validated by the international community as a catalyst for social

inclusion, conflict resolution and peace‟. Boniface (2008: p.89) considers that FIFA succeeded

where the most famous international and regional organizations have failed. Thanks to its

symbolic strength, football can contribute to reconciliation; in particular, in fragile states it can

unite traumatized communities. Boniface (2008: p.91) explains that one of the first steps new

independent states take is to apply for FIFA membership. In modern days apart of three

conventional elements of statehood – government, population and territory – the fourth one –

national football team – is non-officially required.

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Football has always been used as a tool for building identity. Football is an identity itself.

Aderson‟s definition of a nation as an „imagined community‟ helps to explain the link between

the sport, nationalism and identity. Anderson believes that the members of even the smallest

nations might never see each other during their lives; however, in their minds they have an image

of their belonging to the same „imagined community‟ i.e. nation. This idea of belonging to the

same community is well expressed on football matches. As Hobsbawm (1992: p.143) mentioned

„it is much easier to imagine the nation and confirm national identity, when eleven players are

representing the nation in a match against another nation‟. Sack and Suster (2000: p.306) also

explain that the presence of national flags, banners, anthems and other patriotic symbols, can

transform total strangers into a unified collectivity, who share the same identity. I would agree

will all above-mentioned authors and say that football helps to shape or build identity.

There are two levels of reconciliation: top-down and bottom-up, the latter sometimes known as

grassroots level as well. Most of the discussions about reconciliation mainly focus on top-down

level. However, in this thesis I would agree with Bar-Tal and Bennink (2004: p.27) and argue

that in the case of Bosnia and Herzegovina, in order to be effective, both levels must proceed

simultaneously. Grassroots level is in the domain of everyday life. Halpern and Weinstein (2004:

p.304) believe that reconciliation „must begin at the level of individual – neighbor to neighbor,

then house to house and finally community to community‟. The Bosnian case gives us the

possibility to apply this theory into practice. We can consider the Open Fun Football Schools

(OFFS) programme, initiated by Anders Levinsen, as the reconciliation on the grassroots level.

This programme was created to encourage the reconciliation and reintegration of divided

communities in Bosnia, in 1998. Football‟s main contribution to reconciliation is its universality.

It crosses boundaries and motivates children to be like their favorite football players (Bosnian

case: Edin Dţeko, the more prevalent than the name of Allah (Kinder, 2013: p.163) in Bosnia is

the first Bosnian to be UNICEF Ambassador).

The creation of Bosnian National League, i.e. the merge of Bosniak, Croat and Serb football

associations into one federation, could be considered as the reconciliation on the top-down level,

as FIFA, UEFA and IOC were actively involved in the process as well. The case of Bosnian

National Football Team is the evident example of possible successful reconciliation, as it is the

only ethnically mixed institution in the country.

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The limitations of the study:

Needless to say there exist the limitations of using sport for reconciliation process:

- Football is commonly associated with competition and has aggressive character

(attackers, defenders);

- Football is often considered as a tool for enhancing nationalism and violence;

- In Bosnian case, people still have vivid memories of football being used by their

nationalist leaders for their interests; football fans being turned into paramilitaries during

the war;

- Academic research on football as a tool of reconciliation in the divided communities is

very embryonic and much remains to be done.

Literature Review In the contemporary world, in the field of international relations as well as in reality, the issue of

reconciliation is of utmost importance, as a result of numerous conflicts and wars all around the

world. All these conflicts have stigmatized the people, in some cases divided them and broke

inter-ethnic trust. For such cases, where trust is broken and people continue to live next to each

other, the reconciliation in undoubtedly necessary. Halpern and Weinstein (2004: p.306) argue

that „it is the interpersonal ruins, rather than the ruined buildings and institutions, that pose the

greatest challenge for rebuilding society‟. Dozens of scholars have dedicated their work to the

issue of reconciliation; however, there is a limited agreement on the tools, process, levels and

factors the reconciliation requires.

For Galtung (2001: p.3) the reconciliation is the „process of healing the traumas of both victims

and perpetrators‟. Staub & Pearlman (2001) and Staub & Bar-Tal (2003: p.710) define the

reconciliation as a mutual acceptance by groups of each other. For Bar-Tal (2000: p.356) „the

essence of reconciliation is a changed psychological orientation toward the other‟. Reconciliation

could also be defined as the restoration of damaged relationship (Brouneus, 2003: p.30; de la

Rey, 2001: p.7). For reconciliation to be successful, the war and/or conflict affected societies

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have to stop seeing past as defining their future and should acknowledge all the sufferings from

all the sides.

Worthington (2003) devotes the whole book to the forgiveness and reconciliation and argues that

forgiveness leads to reconciliation. Even though forgiving someone might be difficult,

Worthington suggests recalling the hurt by remembering the offenses as objectively as we can;

admitting a wrong done, but not dwell on the victimization.

Cehajić et al. (2008) also examine the connection between forgiveness, forgetting and

reconciliation and start their discussion with the quote of Munira Subašić, the President of the

Association of Citizens „Mothers of Srebrenica and Zepa Enclaves‟ (international conference

about „Pathways to Reconciliation and Clobal Human Rights‟ held in Sarajevo in 2005):

“The word „forgiveness‟ insults me. It makes me a victim again. I have never been in fight with anybody hence there is no need to forgive the other. Nobody has the right to demand from the victim to forgive or to reconcile with the offender. We want neither forgiveness nor reconciliation. All we want is that each perpetrator gets its name and surname, hence to be punished. It is a shame to talk about forgiveness while the main perpetrators who have killed our children and husbands still have not faced legal prosecutions.” (pp. 351-352).

Mrs. Subašić‟s statement might seem very radical, refusing reconciliation, but this statement

does not reflect the position of Bosnian state (at least officially). At the end of their research,

Cehajić and Brown (2008: p.361) mention that „intergroup contact and identification leads to

greater forgiveness‟.

The existing literature distinguishes the two levels of reconciliation: the top-down and the

bottom-up, so called grassroots level. As there is a very significant lack of inter-ethnic trust in

Bosnia, the bottom-up level of reconciliation is more to be successful. That is why Halpern and

Weinstein (2004: p.306) think that reconciliation „must begin at the level of the individual –

neighbor to neighbor, then house to house and finally community to community‟. To cite

Hamber and Kelly (2003: p.5), „reconciliation at the community level remains vital to long-term

stability and development; for it is within communities and at the local level that future violence

is likely to manifest itself‟. However, in most of the cases, the bottom-up reconciliation is

ignored and people try to pay more attention to top-down reconciliation. In Bosnian case, top-

down reconciliation might be more difficult to be achieved, as the country is divided and

17

political elites often are very nationalistic and antagonistic towards the „others‟. I believe that in

order the process to be successful, top-down and bottom-up level should function

simultaneously.

There are different tools and factors that could lead towards reconciliation. Some consider

religion and religious leaders as the contributors to peace and reconciliation, however, those

leaders played an important role in the bloodshed of former Yugoslavia (Clark, 2010b: p.671).

Clark (2010b: p.672) thinks that religious leaders can contribute to peace-building and

reconciliation. For me, that seems a little bit problematic. Writing about the rituals of sport and

religion, Sterchele (2007: p.217), argues that „there are no religious rituals in Bosnia that can

bring together in the same place people belonging to the different national [ethnic] groups,

getting them to participate in a coordinated manner using the same repertoire of action, involving

them in a common feeling of excitement and collective effervescence‟. It would be difficult not

to agree with Sterchele. Religion is one of the main factors that divided Bosnian people. Even

today, despite official statements from all three sides that religion can play a significant role in

reconciliation, very little has been done so far.

The thesis deals with the issue of football and reconciliation; however, there is limited research

in the field. The existing literature mainly focuses on sports and nationalism. For many authors

football is violent by its nature and it is not surprising that it can trigger violence. Suliman (1997)

argues that „research and promotion of football at the grassroots level can constitute a highly

comprehensive and important contribution in peace studies and peace making and

reconciliation‟. Therefore, sport and mainly football can be a powerful tool to promote

reconciliation in post-war Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Jackson and Haigh (2009: p.1) explain that „sport has long served as an important source of

collective identification and is perhaps one of the most powerful and visible symbols of national

identity and nationalism‟. Football has the ability of shaping and strengthening one‟s identity. E.

J. Hobsbawm (1992: p.143) in his „Nations and Nationalism since 1780: programme, myth,

reality‟ pays attention to the connection of sport and identity and mentions: „the imagined

community of million seems more real as a team of eleven named people‟. Tamara Pavasovic

Trost and Nikola Kovacevic (2013: p.1054) notice that „sport in general, and football in

particular, has been proven to be significant theatres for the working up and expression of

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national identity, and its mobilized form, nationalism‟. Hough (2008: p.1287) adds that

„academic treatments of football have tended to focus either on the game‟s capacity to inspire

xenophobic hooliganism amongst its followers or how it has been exploited by politicians for

nationalistic purposes‟. Bainvel (2005: p.56) also notes: „Much hooliganism and many tensions

are expressed through football‟.

Above-mentioned authors are right: football has the capacity to trigger violence and nationalism

as it has the ability of mobilizing masses around one identity. However, if applied rationally

„football has a potential of peace-building and reconciliation‟ (Cwik, 2008a: p.8; Cwik, 2008b:

p.3; Cardenas, 2012: p.4. Lea-Howarth, 2006: p.8). Football is an identity to which others may

very easily be connected, and it begins the important process of identity negotiation, which is

key in reconciliation process.

Often ignored and overlooked, possibly due to its simplicity and association with youth, football

is a legitimate social force, which in its own way is capable of initiating reconciliation. These

days, “The Beautiful Game,” is being used as a peace initiative in the ethnically divided areas‟

(Cwik, 2008b: p.1). Lea-Howarth (2006: p.18) argues that „team-sports can make a significant

impact in conflict reconciliation, where building relationships is absolutely fundamental‟.

Sterchele (2007: p.217-218) believes that football, being the favorite sport of Bosniaks, Croats

and Serbs, can reconcile them. He mentions that all necessary ritual forms already exist, meaning

Bosnians have the long tradition of football and peaceful coexistence. Those rituals „not only

allowed the creation of a single Bosnian football league, but also the use of football for building.

19

Methodology

The combination of descriptive and explanatory research has been used in this thesis. The first

trying to find out „what is going on‟ and the second – „why is it going on‟.

Since the thesis deals with such intangible issues as reconciliation, identity and nationalism, the

qualitative rather than quantitative research method have been used. The variables cannot be

measured, therefore, it was more rational to gather information and then analyze them in order to

gain understanding of the topic.

Instead of inventing theory, theory testing method was used – analyzing and interpreting already

existing theory – that helped the research to guide towards observations and conclusions.

As the research period was not enough to conduct the primary research, and honestly, it would

have been very difficult to conduct such research and fieldwork due to many problems (such as

language barrier, not knowing target groups, etc.) the thesis is based on the secondary research,

i.e. analyzing and interpreting already existing literature about the field.

20

Chapter II: Football and Identity

The concept of identity, despite the huge interest, remains something of enigma. James D.

Fearon (1999) in his research summarized definitions of identity from different authors. One

among many others, which is applicable to this thesis, belongs to Peter Katzenstein (1996. Cited

in Fearon 1999: p.5) who argues that „the term [identity] references mutually constructed and

evolving images of self and other‟. In other words by identity we define who we are and how do

we relate to the society. For Ashmore (et.al. 2001), identity is challenging concept, as it is both

on assertion of sameness and differences. Thus, identity not only helps us acknowledge who we

are, but also how and why we differ from the „others‟. Billig (1995: p.7) defines identity as

something which people have or search for.

In this chapter I will try to examine the relation between sport and identity; more specifically

how sport can play the role in the formation of one‟s identity. Football is all about identity. It is

identity itself. The famous works of Benedict Anderson, Ernest Gellner and Eric J. Hobsbawm

can help us find some theoretical standpoint between sport (football in particular) and identity

building. Even though in his 1983 work „Imagined Communities‟, Anderson does not refer to the

issue of sport, the way he defines nation can help us draw some parallels. For him the nation is

an imagined community – the majority of even the smallest nations will never be able to meet

and know each other; however, in their minds, they have the idea of belonging to the same

community. Anderson‟s theory of imagined communities could be applied to sport. As already

mentioned, football has the capacity of mobilizing and unifying masses, i.e. supporters. The fans

of a football club or national football team may never meet and know each other, but they still

have the same affiliation and identity, as they are the supporters of one specific club and/or team.

Serbian newspaper in Croatia suggested that „for Serbs from Croatia, Red Star is particularly a

part of their national identity. Until recently they did not dare to say aloud what they were by

nationality [ethnicity], but they could say who they supported – always!‟ (Naša Riječ, citied in

Čolović. 2002: p.267). The example of Serbs from Croatia and their affiliation to Red Star of

Belgrade, gives us one clear example how sport forms and shapes identity. In the 1990s the

President of Croatia Franjo TuĎman insisted to change the name of famous Dynamo Zagreb as

Dynamo Croatia to assert his country‟s national identity and break off with the communist past

(Hough, 2008: p.1290; Bainvel, 2005: p.68).

21

Ernest Gellner (1983: p.1) in his „Nations and Nationalism‟ examines the connection of nation,

nationalism and national identity. For him the ethnic and national boundaries should coincide

with each other in order for the nation to exist. At a glance, by Gellner‟s theory we can explain

the reason of disintegration of Yugoslavia, and as a result the formation of nation-states (with the

exception of Bosnia and Herzegovina).

E. J. Hobsbawm (1992) was the one who mentioned the connection between sport and national

identity. For him „the imagined community of million seems more real as a team of eleven

named people‟ (p.143); sport can inculcate national feelings and even the least political and

public individuals can identify with the nation.

Yugoslavia (both - First and Socialist one) invested a lot of political capital in sports and tried to

promote its official ideology of multi-ethnicity through it. In the Kingdom of Yugoslavia (1918-

1944) King Alexander KaraĎorĎević who was the main (and may be the only one) promoter of

„Yugoslav identity‟, banned all the nationalistic political parties and tried to apply „Yugoslav

identity‟ to sports as well. Movie „Montevideo, Bog te video!‟ (Montevideo, taste of a dream!

2010) and its continuation „Montevideo, vidimo se!‟ (See you in Montevideo! 2014) by famous

Serbian director Dragan Bjelogrlić provides a „comforting collective script‟ for the reinstatement

of Serbian national identity (Ristovska, 2012). The movies tell us the story about the successful

performance (third place) of Yugoslavian national football team on the first football world cup in

1930 in the capital of Uruguay, Montevideo. As noted by many researchers, the film functions as

a re-enforcer of Serbian identity and ethnic stereotyping.

Another example from the Socialist Yugoslavia, relates to the football club of Veleţ of Mostar

(Bosnia and Herzegovina) and Tito‟s support of it. According to Richard Mills (2010: p.1107),

Veleţ Mostar mirrored the multi-ethnic Yugoslavia, as the football players of all ethnicities

played in the club. As Veleţ was the embodiment of Tito‟s famous „brotherhood and unity‟, he

supported the club and on the occasion of club‟s fiftieth anniversary even addressed members of

Veleţ Mostar saying they were on the right way since the beginning - „I want the future to foster

brotherhood and unity, which is needed to steadily become stronger and to be consolidated‟.

(Škoro, M. in Mills, R. 2010: p.1107)

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With the decay of Yugoslavia, sport became a central means of mobilizing national enthusiasm

for newly independent states as well. As Hobsbawm (1992: p.143) mentions „the individual, the

one who only cheers, becomes a symbol of his nation himself‟. It was in August 1990, few

months after first multi-party elections of Croatia. It was evident that nationalist tensions would

lead to the new regional order. That was the time, when multi-ethnic Yugoslavian national team

of basketball was dominating in the world; many of its players were NBA (National Basketball

Association of USA) stars. In the final match, when Yugoslavian team won against the Soviet

Union and became world champions of basketball, famous Vlade Divać (ethnically Serb) pulled

the Croatian flag out of the hands of a fan who joined the celebrations and throw it down. In the

ESPN (Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) documentary „Once Brothers‟, Divać

explains that after that very moment, he was identified as the „national hero in Serbia and villain

in Croatia‟. The documentary presents how sport can unite and divide.1 It also shows the role of

sport in forming one‟s national identity.

In terms of identity building in Bosnia, it is important to understand also Smith‟s (1999: p.12-13)

argument about nations of being founded on ethnic communities of groups. Ethnic symbols

distinguishes „us‟ from „them‟ and these symbols are very persistent in post-war Bosnia and

Herzegovina. Thus BiH should establish some common denominators of all three ethnicities.

Billig‟s (1995: p.6) concept of banal nationalism argues that national identity is grounded in the

everyday life in details. However, football as the favorite and the most beloved sport of three

ethnic groups of Bosnia can serve as common cultural denominator.

As suggested, sport has the real capacity of forming and shaping identities. As a mobilizer of

masses it also has the capacity of promoting nationalism, as well as reconciliation; it all depends

how we apply it into practice.

1 Note: The same day of world championship, and Divad’s action of throwing the Croatian flag down, sacrificed his

friendship with ethnically Croat Dražen Petrovid.

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Chapter III: Football and Nationalism Football as the cause of war?!

The thesis examines football as the potential tool for reconciliation in post-war Bosnia and

Herzegovina; however, it would be a huge blunder not to discuss the role of football in the

promotion of nationalism. In this part of the thesis I will discuss the phenomenon of football

hooliganism and analyze how it intensifies nationalism and triggers conflicts. The literature of

football hooliganism mainly focuses on English cases, as the hooliganism was considered as

„English disease‟ (Ingle, 2013). In the second part of the twentieth century, the „English disease‟

spread all around the world.

In the former socialist countries, including Yugoslavia, the sports had been used by the political

leaders according to their interests. In Yugoslavia football mainly was used for fostering the

multi-cultural identity of the country. Tito realized that football had the ability of influencing

nationalism; therefore he banned all football clubs with a nationalist ethos. He strongly supported

the club Veleţ Mostar, which was considered of having Yugoslavian identity, as the club was

multi-ethnic. On the occasion of club‟s fiftieth anniversary Marshall Tito addressed the players:

„Comrades, you are on the right path, not only since yesterday, but from your origin . . . Furthermore, you have remained politically united. I want the future to foster brotherhood and unity, which is needed to steadily become stronger and to be consolidated. I want especially that you, the young generation that follows sport, become the first soldiers of those who will guard against every nationalist assault . . . You must be united; you should cherish and strengthen the brotherhood and unity of our nation. That is our socialist way‟. (Škoro, M. in Mills, 2010: p.1107).

With the gradual decline of the socialist system, and mainly after the death of Tito, football clubs

became the focal point for demonstrating nationalistic tendencies. Football has the potential of

mobilizing and unifying masses of supporters. Sack and Suster (2010: p.306) argue that the

presence of national flags, banners, anthems, and other patriotic symbols, coupled with the

inherently competitive nature of sport, can transform total strangers into a unified collectivity

struggling against a common adversary. It is hard to imagine a better arena for political

socialization. Football has the potential to trigger violence. The best example of such case dates

back in 1969. The World Cup qualifier match between El Salvador and Honduras, ended with

the victory of El Salvador. Consequently, the match was followed by the euphoric celebrations

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among El Salvadorian supporters. The hosts (match took place in El Salvador) burned the

national flag of Honduras and attacked some of their supporters. Month later El Salvadorian

planes dropped bombs in the airport of the capital of Honduras and later dispatched its troops on

the territory of the neighboring country. Four days later, most of the fighting in „100 Hours War‟

had ceased, but the ramifications of the conflict remained for decades (Veytskin, et.al. 2009).

Both sides suffered losses of over 2000 people, more than 100,000 Salvadorians were displaced

by the conflict.

The armed conflict between El Salvador and Honduras is often referred as the „Football (or

soccer) War‟. However, we have to take into consideration the deep and complicated social,

political, historic and economic causes of the conflict. In particular, the combination of border

disputes and close tensions that existed for several years before the exact football match, paved

the way to the war. Geographically speaking, Honduras is about five times larger than El

Salvador. By 1969, Honduras had a population of 2,333,000, compared to El Salvador‟s

3,000,000. The big majority of Salvadorian citizens were immigrating to the neighboring

country, which was much less densely populated. By the time of the conflict, there were 300,000

Salvadorian workers living in the neighboring Honduras (Veytskin, et.al. 2009). The

immigration was not taken positively by the Hondurans, who could see Salvadorian workers

having jobs in their own country, while many of them were jobless. Therefore, it is not rational

to consider football as the cause of war, but as the motivator that could combine all the existing

problems between two neighboring states and transferred them into the armed conflict.

Modern day hooliganism occurs in both verbal and physical forms, including verbal attacks,

racist, offensive banners full of hatred, severe property damage, open assaults and even physical

attacks on supporters, players and civilians. Piotrowski (2006, cited in Warner, 2013: p.4)

believes that the love of sport and love of country are synonymous in the realm of association

football at the international level. Games became the matter of competition between ethnicities,

nationalities, ideologies, etc. This is very typical in the case of former Yugoslav states, including

Bosnia and Herzegovina. The manifestation of ethnic rivalries and hatred during the football

matches in the former Yugoslav countries has different and deep roots. Shay Wood (2013:

p.1082) argues that most of the fans view inter-ethnic incidents among themselves, as a

continuation of the Yugoslav wars.

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Football has been playing important role in Yugoslav politics as much as during the wars of

independence. The culmination of football violence in Yugoslavia occurred on the 13th

of May,

1990 in the Croatian capital of Zagreb. The football match was due to take place two weeks after

the first multi-party Parliamentary elections, where nationalist leader Franjo TuĎman defeated

Communist Party. The ethnic tensions that had grown in the country in the 1980s were escalating

and members of the football clubs fans‟ groups served as a particular megaphone for the leaders

of the Yugoslav republics (ĐorĎević, 2012: p.202). The match that never finished on the

Maksimir stadium had to be held between the Dynamo of Zagreb and the Red Star of Belgrade,

the first one being Croatian and the latter Serbian. The violence erupted between the supporters

of two rival clubs, when Delije (the supporters of Red Star), as the response to the provocations

of Bad Blue Boys (BBB – the supporters of Dynamo of Zagreb), began to attack Dynamo fans

with torn-off seats and knives. As noted, Delije were also singing the Serbian nationalist chants

like „Zagreb is Serbian‟ and „we will kill TuĎman‟. The situation spiraled beyond control and the

Serbian football players had been taken away from the pitch by helicopters. The culmination of

the incident was when the future captain of Croatian National Team Zvonomir Boban kicked the

policeman who was attacking the supporter of Dynamo Zagreb. Later Boban explained what was

happening through his head: „Here I was, a public face prepared to risk his life, career and

everything that fame could have brought, all because of one ideal cause: the Croatian cause‟

(Montague, 2011). By this action, Boban guaranteed his place in the Croatian history as the

national hero of his country.

Another important football incident in the former Yugoslavia took place few months after the

Maksimir events in Croatian city of Split. On 26th

of September, 1990 during the match between

Hajduk of Split (Croatia) and Partizan of Belgrade (Serbia), the Hajduk supporters, so called

Torcida, burned the Yugoslavian flag. According to Pascal Boniface (2008: p.94) „the first event

[Maksimir incident] showed that Serbian and Croatian fans could no longer be in the same

stadium together, the second showed that the Yugoslav state had lost all authority over a

considerable part of its territory‟.

Many have claimed that above-mentioned two sports events led Croatia and Serbia to the war.

Definitely, such claims are far from the reality. Football clashes can highlight and foster already

existing problems or rivalries, rather than cause them.

26

Similar to other European and/or non-European counties, Bosnia and Herzegovina also faces the

problems of hooliganism on football matches. I truly believe this is escalated due to the ethnic

divisions of the state. Football matches almost always become the arena of ethnic rivalries and

hatred; stadiums are full of banners with nationalistic texts and offences. The situation becomes

more dangerous if the competing clubs represent different ethnicities (i.e. Bosniak, Croat or

Serb). In October 4th

, 2009, the match was supposed to be held between FC Sarajevo and FC

Široki Brijeg2. With the arrival of FC Sarajevo fans in Široki Brijeg, the confrontation took place

between the fans. As reported fire arms were used and one fan of FC Sarajevo was killed. The

incident had huge consequences in the country; mass protests took place in Sarajevo, Zenica and

Tuzla. Responsive gathering was held in Široki Brijeg few days later where Ustaša icons and

slogans, such as „Za dom spremni‟ were visible3.

Inter-ethnic tensions erupted in late 2011 between Torcida and Ţeljezničar fans4. Fighting first

started inside the stadium when Hajduk fans started to attack their Ţeljezničar rivals. Police

drove out Hajduk fans; however, the clashes continued outside the stadium as well, when

Ţeljezničar fans started to threw stones to their rivals. At least six people were injured and one

was operated in Sarajevo hospital.

Few weeks before the afore-mentioned incident, another confrontation took place in the

ethnically divided (Bosniaks and Croats) city of Mostar between Veleţ and Zrinjski supporters5.

The problem erupted after Veleţ player Rijad Demic scored in the extra time. Zrinjski supporters

broke the fence and headed towards the Veleţ players.

Such incidents are very common in Bosnian football. Daria Sito-Sucic (2011) analyzing the

football incidents on Reuters, titled her articles as „politics seen behind the Bosnia football

violence‟. Ivica Osim, Bosnia‟s prominent football coach and former head of interim committee

of Football Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, commenting about the two above-mentioned

2 Note: The club comes from the Croat city of Široki Brijeg in Southwestern BiH.

3 Note: ‘Za dom spremni’ (meaning – Ready for the home) was the salute of pro-Nazi Ustaša regime of the

Independent State of Croatia (1941-1945). Up until today Ustaša symbols and slogans are often used by Croatian nationalists. In 2013, the defender of Croatian National Football Team Josip Šimunid was sanctioned by FIFA with ten match ban accompanied by a fine of 30,000 Swiss Francs. During 2014 World Cup qualifiers, after the victory of Croatia against Iceland, Šimunid took a microphone and chanted ‘Za dom spremni’ to the supporters of Croatia. 4 Note: FC Željezničar – based in Sarajevo

5 Note: Velež is considered to be Muslim club and Zrinjski – Croat.

27

incidents, said: „Some centers of power want to destroy everything leading towards integration

and reconciliation‟ (Sito-Sucic, 2011). Thus, Osim considers football as the tool of reconciliation

in post-war BiH.

As already mentioned the manifestation of hatred and violence in football in Bosnia and

generally speaking, in the territory of former Yugoslavia has deep roots. In the Yugoslav case the

football went beyond Orwell‟s critical description of it – „[…] war minus shooting‟. Football

fans were actively participating in the wars of secession/independence. When the war in Croatia

broke up in 1991, football fans were one of the earliest volunteers (Wood, 2013: p.1081). The

Dynamo Zagreb supporters, so called Bad Blue Boys (BBB) and Torcida (Hajduk Split

supporters) joined the military unites of the emerging Croatian army. Supporters of Sarajevo‟s

two main clubs (Sarajevo and Ţeljezničar) joined the Bosnian Army. Therefore, archenemies on

the local level, turned into alliance for the love and defense of their homelands.

Warlord Ţeljko Raţnatović6, with the nickname of „Arkan‟, the man considered to be criminal

and accused of robberies in Europe before the Yugoslav wars, was the leader of Red Star

Supporters‟ club Delije (Serbian word meaning brave). He recruited many of the fans and

formed Serbian Volunteer Guard – „Arkan‟s Tigers‟. The Tigers fought in Slavonia (eastern

Croatia), including in the city of Vukovar and Bosnia (Wood, 2013: p.1081). Later he confirmed

himself to prepare Red Star supporters for real war right after 13 May, 1990 Maksimir events,

where he was already the official leader of Delije. „[…] we began to organize immediately after

that [Maksimir incident]. […] I could see war coming because of that match in Zagreb. I foresaw

everything and knew that Ustaša daggers would soon be slaughtering Serbian women and

children again‟ (Srpsko Jedinstvo in Čolović, 2002: p.276). During the wars, Delije changed the

lyrics of their football songs and applied them to the war situation. Here is one example:

There will be hell again, There‟ll be a madhouse again,

The specials are on the move, From the streets of Foča.

6 Željko Ražnatovid was indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) for crimes

against humanity for his role during the war. However, before the trial he was assassinated in 2000 in Belgrade, Serbia.

28

The Četniks are on their way, The fighters are on their way, Cosa‟s men are on their way. Serbian volunteers. They do not fear Allah, They do not fear the faith, They do not fear Alija [Izetbegović] And all his Turks. (Čolović, 2002: p.279) It has been suggested and confirmed that at the extreme level football has sometimes gone

beyond pitch hooliganism and was associated with real war in former Yugoslavia. However, if

organized responsibly, it can trigger the reconciliation and peace. The following part of the thesis

will deal with the case of football and reconciliation. In the beginning the role of football in the

process of reconciliation will be analyzed, and afterwards I shall discuss the case of Bosnia and

Herzegovina. Three different levels of football will be discussed: 1) the Open Fun Football

Schools programme, which is the best example of grassroots level reconciliation in BiH; 2) The

whole story of creation of Bosnian National League of football. Even though at the local level

the football clubs are mainly mono-ethnic, there are some visible signs of reconciliation; 3) the

last part will be dedicated to the National Football Team, which is considered to be the only

ethnically mixed institution of post-war BiH.

29

Chapter IV: Football and Reconciliation

In this thesis the reconciliation is defined as „the rebuilding of previous (pre-war) relations; the

acknowledgment of all suffering and atrocities by all sides; the breaking of post-war ice of

seeing „others‟ (representatives of other ethnic groups) as enemies – stereotypes and the

movement from the divided past to the shared future‟.

In the process of reconciliation different tools could be used; however, I will examine the role of

football. Recently many scholars focused on how football can facilitate peace-building and

reconciliation, but there is still limited research in the field. The picture all over the world is

complicated; simply because, I believe, each conflict and post-conflict society is unique and we

cannot apply the same practices everywhere. Because of such uniqueness, in some places

football promotes social cohesion, whereas, in some places it just feeds the conflict. Despite such

contradictions, there is still a belief that football can facilitate reconciliation in post-war Bosnia

and Herzegovina.

Football, being the most beloved sport of three ethnicities of Bosnia – Bosniak, Croat and Serb –

is able to act as a bridge between divided communities. Armstrong and Vest (2012: p.162)

believe that it is sport that gives the people a reason to visit and better understand the „people

over the hill‟.

Sport had been increasingly recognized and used as an innovative low-cost and high-impact tool

in the efforts of reconciliation by many international and regional organizations. However, it

should be mentioned this phenomenon is not the new one and dates back in the ancient times. As

already said, the Olympic Truce „Ekecheiria‟ (that means holding of hands or laying down of

arms) sought to ensure the free passage of athletes and travellers who were heading to the

Olympic Games (Perseus Digital Library, 2014). Since 1993, the United Nations has passed

resolutions that call for world peace during Olympic Games.7 In spite of having sketchy details,

it is believed that during World War I Christmas Truce, German and British soldiers exchanged

Christmas gifts and played football.

7 NOTE: however, the resolutions are not always followed. The 2008 August War between Georgia and Russia took

place during 2008 Beijing Olympics.

30

Blagojević (2012: p.124) believes that sport can serve as one of the peace-building structures

through which the social fabric of society can be rebuilt. It can provide the venue for the

antagonistic societies for future interaction and participation. Football can empower post-conflict

societies and promote reconciliation in the divided societies. Nelson Mandela said in 2012

„soccer is one of the most unifying activities amongst us‟ (Kuper, 1994: p.138).

It has been observed that due to the egalitarian nature of football, it can achieve success where

diplomacy and politics fail. Before examining the Bosnian case in depth and in details, it would

be worth to mention several cases where football played the positive role for the reconciliation of

divided or antagonistic societies.

During Liberian civil war, thousands of fighters would put down the guns and go to the stadium

together to watch international matches. During matches the peace was maintained (Johnson,

2014; Lea-Howarth, 2006: p.27). However, it was resumed after the games. In 2007, the idea of

LICE – Life and Change Experience Thru Sport was born, which aims „to develop positive role

models in communities in a manner that is fun and challenging‟ (McQuaile, 2014). The main

goal behind this idea is to reconcile the people of Liberia that suffered a lot during the civil war

and to do so through sport is the most successful way.

In 1969, during Nigerian Civil War (also known as Biafran War), Brazilian famous football club

Santos took part in two friendly matches in Nigeria. In order to watch their common football

legend Pele playing in their neighborhoods, warring parts – Biafrans and Nigerians – agreed on

48 hour truce (Drezner, 2006). Of course, in both cases, the truce and peace was only temporary,

however, that shows the real potential of football for being used for peace-building and

reconciliation. Brazilian football teams have been engaged in peace activities several times. One

prominent case was in 2004, when FIFA President Sepp Blatter, called for „make goals, not war‟

(Hough, 2008: p.1287) and encouraged Brazil to play friendly football match against Haiti. It

was only a few months after Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was ousted by bloody

revolt and UN peacekeepers were trying to restore order in the country. Brazilian troops

represented the biggest UN peacekeeper contribution (Ottey, 2004). Even though the friendly

match ended with the convincing victory of Brazil (6:0), after the match interim President of

Haiti Latortue noted that few Brazilian football players could do more to disarm warring militias,

31

than thousands of peacekeepers. The T-shirts with the slogan „One Match, One Country‟ worn

by many Haitians, gave the hope to the people and government of Haiti for peace.

Another example of football‟s potential for inter-ethnic reconciliation was seen on India-

Bangladeshi border in 2007. Cwik (2008b: p.2) cited the local correspondent: „On May 18, 2007,

in the town of Dawki, the same place where border guards have often traded gunfire across a

porous frontier, Indian and Bangladeshi guards slipped out of their battle fatigues to play their

first ever friendly football match in the hilly frontier town‟. This case was not the only one. Since

then the residents of borderline villages from both sides would organize football matches; their

family members become close and friendly. The matches became so prominent, that on several

occasions the spectators included high level politicians as well.

Football is not just a game. It is universal language that crosses all the ethnic, religious, racial

and geographic boundaries. The Football for Peace (F4P) initiative in the Middle East, seeks to

integrate Jewish and Arab children and youth through the establishment of cross-community

football schools and matches. The program aims for grassroots reintegration and reconciliation

of Israel and Palestine. After 2014 Gaza Crisis it would be very difficult to talk about the Israeli-

Palestine reconciliation process; however, before the escalation of the conflict, the project was

noted of being very successful on the grassroots level. Nujidat (2007 cited in Liebmann and

Rookwood, 2007: p.17) mentions: „may be the children who have experienced F4P will not grow

up to be professional football players, but surely they will be better human citizens because of it‟.

And he is right. The main goal of F4P and its analogue, Open Fun Football Schools (OFFS) is

post-conflict reintegration and reconciliation of divide communities; it does not intend to train

and make professional football players. By mixed groups, initiators of the programmes intend to

break post-conflict/war ice and bridge the gap on the grassroots level. In both cases, the main

priority is for the participants to be ethnically and equally mixed in order to keep the balance and

promote reconciliation.

The case of Japan and South Korea (Republic of Korea) illustrates how football can improve

relations between two antagonistic countries. FIFA‟s decision to choose Japan and South Korea

as joint hosts of 2002 World Cup was something surprising. First of all, FIFA had to change its

own regulations for such an innovation; but, the most important part of the story is that it

provoked a fragile alliance between the two East Asian states and their people whose relationship

32

is still deeply trained by their historical memories (Eden and Vucetic, 2013: p.27; Cha, 2002). By

such diplomatic move, FIFA avoided choosing between two „Asian giants‟ and additionally, was

intended to bring two traditional antagonists together.

Aljazeera documentary series – „Football Rebels‟ (2013) tells us the amazing stories of five

football players; among them I will distinguish the cases of Didier Drogba and Predrag Pasić.

Drogba, undoubtedly one of the best strikers in the world was on the pick of his career when his

home country Ivory Coast (or the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire) was being destroyed by civil war.

The conflict emerged between the government-held South and rebel-held North. The people

living in the south called themselves Ivoirite or Ivoirity, thus emphasizing their ethnic and

cultural identity, while referring to the people from the North as Burkinabe, thus emphasizing

their origins from neighboring Burkina Faso. This paper does not intend to discuss the roots and

causes of the severe war, but to emphasize the role Didier Drogba and the national football team

of Ivory Coast – „Elephants‟- played for the reconciliation of the country. The civil war was

going on for already five years, when in 2005 the national football team qualified for the next

year‟s football world cup in Germany. As Didier Drogba mentions in the documentary, he

realized that this emotional moment was the very exact moment to act and change something for

his country. In front of TV cameras, in national channel live broadcast he addressed the nation

and asked for forgiveness:

„We have proved to you that the people of Ivory Coast can live together side by side, play together toward the same goal: qualifying for the World Cup. We promised you this celebration would bring the people together. Today we beg you, on our knees [and he kneed with all his teammates], forgive! Please, lay down your weapons; hold the elections and all will be better‟ („Football Rebels‟, 2013).

Drogba, who as Alex Hayes (2007) mentions is God to the Ivorian people, succeeded where

diplomacy and politics failed. His plea was answered by ceasefire after five years of civil war.

Additionally, he managed to convince the president of Ivory Coast to move an African Cup of

Nations qualifier match against Madagascar in rebel-held Bouake (North Ivory Coast). Drogba

recalls that „seeing both leaders [north and south] side by side for the national anthem was very

special. I felt then that the Ivory Coast was born again‟ („Football Rebels‟, 2013). Holding the

match in the north part of the country had a very symbolic meaning for the reconciliation of

Ivorians. Football might not end the war, as few years after the second civil war erupted in Ivory

Coast, however, it showed Ivorians the possibilities of peace and reconciliation (Stelly, 2013). In

33

2007, Drogba was appointed by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) as a

Goodwill Ambassador (UNDP official web-site).

Next part of Aljazeera documentary is dedicated to the famous Yugoslav football player Predrag

Pašić. Sarajevo born Pašić tells the beautiful story of how he, during the war in Bosnia, instead

of leaving country for the better future, decided to open the ethnically mixed football school -

Bubamara. With his friends he made a radio announcement and recalls that the next day around

300 children turned up to enroll. In school he taught the philosophy of unity and teamwork

through sport. „We have a big culture around football in our country – everyone loves it,‟ – says

Pašić and adds that few days after the launching of the school he realized the power of football;

despite the siege, snipers and shooting from all the sides of the city, children would come for

training every single day with their parents and enjoy the company of their fellow citizens from

different ethnic backgrounds. For Pašić this is the philosophy of football, the collective, unifying

philosophy. Even though ethnically mixed football school, operated during the siege of Sarajevo,

did not stop the war, the case of Pašić shows the strength and power of football. Famous football

player who identifies himself as Yugoslav, rather than Serb, since the beginning of the war is

trying to promote the idea of multi-ethnic Bosnia and Herzegovina. He believes that diversity is a

resource and strength for BiH. Bubamara functions even today but not without problems. Despite

the politicians who are trying to shut down the school, Pašić still believes that he can promote the

ideas of multi-ethnicity, peace and reconciliation at least on the grassroots level. However, this

grassroots level reconciliation has the potential to lead to the higher level of reconciliation,

because, the youth who are going to the football school belong to different ethnicities; often they

are accompanied by their parents who do communicate to each other. Therefore, Pašić believes

that if these kids are grown up with the idea of tolerance and diversity, they will promote

reconciliation in the future.

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IV.1. Open Fun Football Schools (OFFS)

The Open Fun Football School programme was one of the first initiatives for building mutual

understanding and trust after the civil war in Bosnia and Herzegovina and has definitely played a

significant role in the peaceful resolution of the conflicts in the former Yugoslavia (Dorokhina et

al., 2011: p.25).

The programme that aims to encourage the reintegration of divided communities was opened in

1998 in BiH. Since then it has expanded to the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia

(FYROM), Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia, Georgia and several other countries and has organized

tens of thousands of children from antagonistic communities to play football together. The OFFS

in BiH is designed to give children from Bosniak, Croat and Serb communities the chance to

move over the old frontlines, breaking invisible barriers to play with children from nearby

communities that were recently considered as enemies (Gasser & Levinsen, 2010: p.461).

The programme was initiated by Anders Levinsen, who also founded the non-governmental

organization (NGO) Cross Cultures Project Association (CCPA) to organize them. The

programme, which is organized during school vacations, brings together children from different

ethnic groups, with different skill levels, to play football together on the same teams. The main

goal of the programme is not to make children professional football players, rather to make those

children meet each other, build friendship, break post-war ice and overcome „ethnic barriers‟.

OFFS is based on the concept of „fun football‟, as developed by the Danish Football Association.

Their philosophy is derived from the Danish public sport culture that is characterized by

democratic principles, volunteerism, parent support, and the basic principle of „sports for all‟.

Levinsen got the idea of setting up OFFS when he returned from working for the UN in war-torn

Bosnia and Herzegovina, and witnessed how Danish children benefited from attending the

summer fun football camps (Gasser & Levinsen, 2010: p.462).

In the initial stage, the schools were organized by a single municipality, but in 2000 OFFS

adopted the „twin city‟ approach, that is considered to be the most significant aspect of the

programme. The main idea of the new approach is that football clubs, leaders, coaches and

children from minimum two municipalities and three football clubs representing hostile

population groups organize an Open Fun Football School jointly (Official web-site of Cross

35

Cultures Project Association). Adopting the twin city approach in Bosnia and Herzegovina

broadened the utility of the programme as a peace-building tool, applying it not only to promote

contact between children, but also establishing sustainable contacts which foster relationships

between the adult trainers, schools, clubs and municipalities that are involved in organizing the

school (Gasser & Levinsen, 2010: p.463).

Football schools are led by three leaders from different ethnic communities and the hosting of

the school rotates between stadiums in participating towns in a system which serves to divide

responsibilities equally, assure that no single group is excluded by a hostile arena, and demystify

„enemy territory‟ by bringing both children and adults over the ghosts of the old frontlines

(Levinsen, 2009). OFFS aims to engage all participants sufficiently to help them forget, at least

for a while, the fear and discomfort of crossing the lines (Official web-site of OFFS).

OFFS are open to boys and girls from ages eight to fourteen. Even though the Balkan children

were not recruited to participate in the armed conflict, very often they were victims: they have

strong memories of the war and its effects on their families. Herewith, in most of the cases, this

new generation of Bosnian children does not have the memories of the multi-ethnic Yugoslavia,

and haven‟t communicated with their fellows from the different ethnic-communities. In their

minds, children from another ethnic community might be considered as enemies. This is not

surprising, as they generally go to segregated schools and have few opportunities for contact

with children from other ethnic groups who live in nearby towns or neighborhoods. OFFS aims

to use fun to strengthen their confidence and encourage them to play football, and to enable the

contacts and generate the warmth that are needed to demystify „enemy territory‟ and to break the

psychological freeze between groups.

The case of trainers has to be mentioned as well. Unlike the children, many of the trainers

participated actively in the war; but while they may have shot at each other over the frontlines,

before being divided by the war, they spent many years going to school, working, and often

playing and watching sport together. The training for the trainers are obligatory and as we can

understand from the official web-site of OFFS the workshops are always run jointly with trainers

from all sides. A survey that examined the motives of trainers for participating in the programme

showed that many were attracted by the chance to meet old friends and associates at training

workshops (Levinsen, 2009).

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Evaluating Success

As the author and inspirer of the OFFS programme, Anders Levinsen evaluates, the project has

been successful. He claims that a large number of football schools which have good participation

from all ethnic groups are already accomplishment. Only the few years after the end of the war,

OFFS held multi-ethnic events in the places that had been strongly stigmatized during the war.

When OFFS brought Muslim children into Srebrenica, UN forces considered that the risks

justified not just vehicle escorts, but helicopters; while emotions on all sides ran high, the event

was a success (Lea-Howarth, 2006: p.33). Participation rates have remained high, and ethnic

balances, closely monitored through programme statistics, have been respected.

Open Fun Football Schools in Bosnia and Herzegovina have been successful not only for getting

children from different ethnic backgrounds to play together, but also in getting their families and

communities to cheer for them and cross the former frontlines. Gasser and Levinsen (2010:

p.470) claim that in working to develop inter-group contact and cooperation, OFFS has taken

advantage of the fact that communities‟ isolation from each other is not longstanding, or

hostilities deeply ingrained; only a few years ago, people now cast as enemies were playing,

watching sports events, working and going to school together. Compared to some conflicts,

where hostilities have isolated populations for generations, the historical ice that has to be broken

to re-establish contact and cooperation is relatively thin. As a terrain for re-integrating

communities polarized by war, football is something like frontline farmland: fertile, but likely to

be mined (Gasser and Levinsen, 2010: p.471). UEFA has labeled the Open Fun Football Schools

programme as the „life-changing scheme in Bosnia and Herzegovina‟ (UEFA official web-site.

http://www.uefa.com/news/newsid=940123.html).

To sum up, according to the research the OFFS is playing positive role in grassroots level

reconciliation in BiH. The children, who are the future of their country, meet, play together and

cheer for each other. There is a hope and belief that „beautiful game‟ will destroy stereotypes

these kids have from their history books and instead of using distinctions such as „us‟ and

„them‟, after spending some time together everyone will become „us‟. These hopes are

optimistic, but still they are hopes. On the national level the reality is somewhat different.

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IV.2. National League of Bosnia

Following the Yugoslavian breakdown inter-ethnic trust was broken by creating separated,

ethnically homogenous, communities. The propagandistic demonization of the „others‟ was used

by nationalistic elites, that fuelled tensions. Such a separation has been maintained and

reinforced in everyday life of post-war Bosnia-Herzegovina – distinctive imagined communities

adopted different educational systems, using their own school textbooks and programs. Banal

nationalism reached its pick and differentiation of the flags, religious symbols and alphabets,

renaming the street names became the everyday activity of all Bosnians (Sterchele, 2013: p.976).

Such a vicious circle was also evident in Bosnian football.

The Bosnian Football Association, founded in Sarajevo in 1992, was predominantly Bosniak.

The Bosnian Serbs and the Bosnian Croats also formed their own distinct football associations

and leagues in 1992, but in 1996 FIFA recognized the Bosniak association on the basis that it

claimed to represent all Bosnians. Under pressure from the Union of European Football

Associations (UEFA) and the International Federation of Football Associations (FIFA), all three

ethnic associations (Bosniak, Croat and Serb) agreed to a draft statute for the unified football

association of BiH. However, when the statute was due to be implemented, the representatives of

the Serbian association refused to take part. They claimed that according to the 1995 Dayton

Peace Accords, sport issues were under the jurisdiction of the two entities. Consequently they

claimed that football association of Republika Srspka should be directly represented in

international bodies and competitions (Klemenčić, 2000: p.103). The Bosnian Croat and Bosniak

leagues eventually merged in 2000. The Republika Srpska formed its own football federation and

organized a separate football competition. However, the Serbian federation was not recognized

by FIFA or UEFA and the Bosnian Serbs finally joined the Bosnian Premijer Liga (Premier

League) in 2002 (Kinder, 2013: p.160).

The new Federation though was shaped following the Dayton model, with a tripartite presidency

and a seats-rotation system between the representatives of each community. Although intended

to be a temporary solution, this structure operated until April 2011, when the UEFA suspended

the Football Association of BiH (NFSBiH) and replaced its board with a „normalization

committee‟ in charge of mediating between the Federation‟s members, and finally amended the

38

statute by replacing the tripartite structure with a single member presidency. Breaking away from

the Dayton model, the new NFSBiH became the first Bosnian institution to be headed by a single

president, i.e. without the rotational balance system which is usually claimed to guarantee each

„constituent people‟ not to be overpowered by the others (Sterchele, 2013: p.978).

The National League, however, mirrors the state (Armstrong & Vest, 2013: p.48). While

physically representing all ethnicities, below the surface the clubs and the structures remain

divided. It is the well-known fact that the two competing rival clubs in Mostar (southern BiH)

are ethnically homogenous – Zrinjski Mostar was founded in 1905 and represents the Croat

community, while Veleţ Mostar, that was founded in 1922 and back then used to be the symbol

of multi-ethnic Bosnia-Herzegovina, nowadays is purely Bosniak club.

David Sterchele (2013: p.976) claims that when the Premijer Liga started, just seven years after

the end of the armed conflict, there were many concerns about its possible negative

consequences in terms of inter-ethnic tensions. Actually, by putting teams and fans from

different ethnic backgrounds together, the football world became a potential „mined field‟, giving

room both to physical and mainly verbal violence. Since the first Premijer Liga season, slogans

and offences have been emphasized through the use of war symbolisms - the Serb fans were

called „četnik‟ by the Bosnaks or Croats, the Croat fans were called „ustaša‟ by the others, while

the Bosniaks were called „balija‟.8 Serb fans occasionally welcomed Bosniak supporters wish the

banners stating „Noţ, ţica, Srebrenica‟ (Knife, barbed wire, Srebrenica), thus celebrating the

Srebrenica massacre in which more than 7000 Bosniak men and young boys were killed by

Bosnian Serb paramilitaries. However, offences are not one-sided only. As mentioned by

Sterchele (2013: p.983) once the supporters of Ţeljezničar Sarajevo revenged by making their

own banner stating „Od Sarajeva do Borika, nigdije neće biti četnika!‟ (From Sarajevo to Borik,

there won‟t be no chetnik), and displaying it to the Bosnian Serb fans of Borac Banja Luka. In

2004, during the match in Sarajevo, the Serbs were met with the banner reading „we have

250,000 reasons to hate you‟, a reference to the number of the people killed during the 1992-

1995 war. Serbian fans responded back by shouting the name of Radovan Karadţić, the wartime

8 Note: četniks were Serbian Royal paramilitary units during WWII. Ustaša were the soldiers of the Croatian fascist

anti-Yugoslav separatist movement. The term Balija is a term used to describe descendants of Turks of Ottoman Empire in the Balkans. The term is also used in a derogatory way to call anyone who is a Bosnian Muslim or considers themselves an ethnic Bosniak (Urban Dictionary).

39

leader of the Bosnian Serbs who is accused of massacres of Bosnian Muslims (Secularac &

Wood, 2005).

The Unification of Bosnian football, as argued, has contributed to bringing the separated

communities together, at least in part, by stimulating the football fans to travel to the „enemy

territory‟ to attend matches. However, while asked if the people in Republika Srpska attended the

matches of Bosnian Premijer liga, young Bosnian Serb in the interview with Sterchele Davide in

2004, was saying:

„Well . . . we do follow it, yeah, but . . . not as much as we follow or read what happens in Serbia – cause the Serbian are our „brother-people‟. I mean, in Republika Srpska you don‟t have enough information at your disposal to be able to follow what happens in BiH, for instance about football . . . at least if we consider the news that reach us in Republika Srpska. I mean, everybody read Serbian media, everybody eat food made in Serbia, and so on . . . Do you understand what I mean? Although there is also something coming from BiH . . . But we mainly read the Serbian mass media. You read stuffs coming from Belgrade: Većernji Novosti, Sport, and so on. We read their newspapers, you understand? Otherwise, when I read a Bosnian newspaper . . . we only read about our own teams, those from the Republika Srpska. I may read something about Sarajevo and Ţeljeţničar, but nothing about the other teams . . .‟ (2013: p.977-978).

At the same time, another Bosnian Serb from the town of Modriča was claiming:

„Now we have it here very close, in Modriča [Serb town] – I mean, the Premijer Liga – and a lot of people comes from the neighborhood. A lot of players from Gradačac [Bosniak town] went to attend the last match, but I‟ve also noticed many people from Šamac, from Odak [Croat town] . . . Among the neighboring towns, only Modriča and Orašje have a team in Premijer Liga at the moment, so everybody want to come here to watch Ţeljo, Sarajevo, Čelik, Borac, Leotar . . .‟ (2013: p.978).

It might be difficult to measure the role of Bosnian football in the process of reconciliation;

however, we can conclude that many people in Bosnia and Herzegovina truly believe the

beloved sport of their country can play the positive role in post-war reconciliation. In the

interview with Ed Vulliamy, who covered the Bosnian War for Guardian, the former manager of

Ţeljezničar Sarajevo, Jiri Plíšek, was saying „if the politicians had their way, Bosniaks would

have to pass to a Bosniak, Serbs to Serbs, Croats to Croats. But that's not how football works;

football connects everyone, and has the face of every nationality‟ (Vulliamy, 2014).

As Toby Kinder (2013) would say:

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„Like Andrić‟s bridge [meaning the Nobel Prize winner, Ivo Andrić‟s book „The

Bridge on the Drina‟] regardless of its origins, history, and mythologies, football

remains one of the very few structures with the power to make those connections

between nationalities, ethnicities and religions. Despite pitch invasions and

outbursts of nationalist hooliganism, the slow but gradual emergence of an

independent post-war football culture in BiH suggests that there is room for a

degree of optimism about its capacity to heal‟ (2013: p.165).

We can conclude that on the local level, football clubs are mostly mono-ethnic. Even though

some Bosnians have hopes that football can unite them, we have seen that local matches are the

arena of ethnic rivalries even today. War and ethnic symbols are widely used during the matches.

However, opposite to the more or less mono-ethnic Premijer Liga, it has been argued that the

national side has become more multi-ethnic over the last decade.

IV.3. Bosnian National Football Team

World Cup 2014

The qualification of Bosnian national football team – with the nickname of Dragons or Zmajevi -

for the 2014 World Cup has been considered as the potential to be tool for national and inter-

ethnic reconciliation. Many argued that the World Cup could contribute to nation and identity

building of post-war Bosnia.

National football team is the country‟s first and the only multi-ethnic organization. Even FIFA

President Stepp Blatter praised the contribution of Bosnian team: „throughout the past years we

have seen how the national team of Bosnia-Herzegovina has become a symbol of reconciliation

and union for the whole country, thus once again demonstrating the powerful role of football in

society‟ (FIFA official web-site, 2013).

The national team became more multi-ethnic over the last decade and gained the support from

Bosnian Serbs and Bosnian Croats as well. Multi-ethnic structure of the team is a proof of the

fact that cooperation and coexistence is possible among the three ethnic groups of the country.

Jonathan Wilson (2014) mentions that „despite inescapable past, BiH writes a new chapter‟ of its

history. For Edin Dedović (2013) football is universal language without any discrimination:

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„Miralem Pjanić (an ethnic Bosniak) will not refuse a pass from Miroslav Stevanović (an ethnic Serb) because of events that took place while they were children and were far beyond their control. It is the trust that the goalkeeper Asmir Begović (an ethnic Bosniak raised in Canada) has in defenders Emir Spahić (an ethnic Bosniak born in Croatia), Boris Pandţa (an ethnic Croat) and up until recently Sasa Papac (an ethnic Serb). For those 90 minutes, any differences are set aside for the good of the team. They may not be forgotten, but for at least those 90 minutes they are not relevant‟.

In international media Bosnia was portraying as a country that has risen from ashes and was

supposed to leave its past behind; its players were represented as „the children of war‟ who are

now Bosnia‟s golden generation „uniting a once bitterly divided nation‟ (Beanland, 2013; Brown,

2013).

The team is really composed of „war children‟. However, the big majority of the footballers have

left the country during the war. Bosnian 2014 squad is mainly a team of diaspora. Miralem

Pjanić and Zvjezdan Misimović spent their adult years in Germany and Luxembourg

respectively. Vedad Ibišević, who plays on the position of striker, left Bosnia and moved to

United States. Goalkeeper Asmir Begović moved with his family to Germany and later to

Canada when he was only four years old. Haris Medunjanin moved to the Netherlands when he

was seven, while his father and uncle stayed in Bosnia and both were killed in the war (Gupta,

2014., Wilson, 2014). „National idol of Bosnia‟ Edin Dţeko remained in Sarajevo during the

whole period of the war. The house of his family has been bombed and destroyed; therefore he

was forced to move to his grandparents‟ small house and stay there with family and relatives.

All the players have the bitter memories of the war. Utermohlen (2014) dedicates the article to

Vedad Ibišević who started playing football after moving to the United States. As argued for him

the football was a mean of escape, a way to lose himself in something through extreme

dedication.

Despite being diaspora team and having chances to play for more successful countries such as

Germany, Netherlands, Luxembourg, US, all of these footballers in the current squad decided to

play for Bosnia and represent their country on the international stage. Begović recalls that before

deciding choosing between Canada and Bosnia, he discussed the issue with the family and made

a decision afterwards (Wilson, 2014).

42

Nevertheless, this is not always the case. Many authors and Bosnians themselves criticize the

composition of Bosnian national football team. Their main argument refers to the fact that

footballers do not represent all ethnic groups proportionally; they claim Bosnian team is mainly

Bosniak. Frankly speaking this is somehow true. However, many Bosnian Croats and Bosnian

Serbs, if they have the chance, prefer to play in Croatia and Serbia respectively, rather than

Bosnia. Neven Subotić (Bosnian Serb, plays for German Borussia Dortmund and Serbian

national team) once remarked about his decision to join „Beli Orlov‟i (White Eagles – the

nickname of Serbian national football team): „In the end what really decided it was that my

parents are Serbian and all my family – my cousins, my uncle, my aunt, my grandma – are all

Serbs. They live in Bosnia but they cheer for Serbia and now they cheer for me when I play. It

was a set back to my roots. It was the only real option‟ (Ginnell, 2014). Zagreb based football

journalist, Aleksandar Holiga thinks that in any sport, if the sportsmen have the chance to

represent Croatia or Serbia, they will not chose Bosnia: „a lot of footballers who have played for

Croatia have been eligible for Bosnia and this distinction is more evident when it comes to

foreign-born or diaspora players [such as Mateo Kovačić, Ivan Rakitić and Nikica Jelavić in the

current squad] (Holiga cited in Ginell, 2014). It is difficult not to agree with Holiga. The case of

Subotić and many others is the clear evidence. The US Open Championship in tennis (9

September, 2014), has been won by MeĎugorje (south-west BiH) born Marin Čilić, who

represents Croatia on the international stage rather than Bosnia. After Čilić‟c convincing victory

against Japanese Kei Nishikori in the final, visiting scholar at Columbia University, Jasmin

Mujanović tweeted on his personal twitter account the following comment: „Čilić - example of

tragedy of BiH politics. Played for BiH youth team, received zero institutional support. Went to

Croatia, won US Open‟ and added that Čilić‟s case also demonstrates why state level Ministry of

Sport and Culture is needed for Bosnia and Herzegovina. „Closed museums and lost talent is all

we have now‟ (Mujanović‟s personal twitter account, 2014).

Sportsmen opting to play for Croatia or Serbia, rather than Bosnia attitude is noticeable in the

population as well. Despite the positive symbolism of national side‟s increasing unity, many

Croats and Serbs within BiH still demonstrate their loyalties to their respective national teams.

Kinder (2013: p.161) argues that many Bosniaks choose to show allegiance to the Turkish roots

of their ancestors and even though they support their local side, many of them would wear

scarves and shirts of a Turkish club or wave Turkish flags. He recalls the 2008 European

43

Championship quarter-final match between Croatia and Turkey that had terrible implications on

Mostar. Following 1-1 draw, the penalty series was won by Turkey. Mostar was literally divided

that day – Bosniak fans supporting Turkey gathered in one square, Croats in another. The fight

spread across the city center and police used tear-gas and armored vehicles to avoid further

violence.

Although the international press was full of articles about Bosnia‟s qualification for World Cup,

and „Dragons‟ role for possible reconciliation, the inside reactions varied from place to place in

Bosnia. I arrived in Sarajevo on the 15th

of June, 2014 – the day Bosnia had their first ever World

Cup match against Argentina. Words are not enough to explain the atmosphere in the „broken

city with unbroken spirit‟ (Bozicevic, 2012). There were national flags everywhere, absolutely

everywhere! Sarajevo was blue and yellow [the colors of national flag]! People were wearing

national team jerseys and hats in the national colors. Almost every car was driving with huge

waving flags from the windows. Was that the soul of united Bosnian identity? Apparently no!

The same day, Kirsten Schlewitz (journalist, specialized in football) was travelling in the town of

Tribenje, Republika Srpska. In her blog-post she describes her experience – walking all around

Tribenje in search for a place to watch the match between Bosnia and Argentina. The attempts

were in vain. As she claims, when asked, the owners and visitors of several café-bars, simply

answered they were not interested in the match, because they did not support Bosnia (Schlewitz,

2014). After interviewing several people in Tribenje, Schlewitz concludes that Bosnian Serbs

cannot identify themselves with the „Dragons‟. People were claiming that their entity is not

represented in the national team. „Republika Srpska is represented by one player, Vranješ, but as

he rarely starts it's possible that Bosnian Serbs simply overlook him. Misimović is one of the

team's stars, but as his parents emigrated to Germany during the 1960s and he himself was born

in Munich. He's not a player Republika Srpska can call their own‟ – says Schlewitz.

Unfortunately she is not the only one having such an experience. When in 2013, Bosnia won

decisive away match against Lithuania and guaranteed their ticket to Brazil, there was a sparking

jubilation in Bosnia, but as noted only in the Bosniak populated places (Fadilpasić, 2013).

Bosnian Serb official television RTRS did not even show the match and instead transmitted

Serbia‟s qualifier with Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM).

44

Many people were full of optimism after Bosnia‟s qualification for the World Cup, thinking it

would be the step forward for reconciliation and national unity. World Cup really had the

potential to bring people together, but we should not be under any illusions. „The opium of the

people‟ lasted for a month only, while other factors of Bosnian inter-ethnic relations, such as

segregated educational system, Dayton Peace Accords, nationalistic politicians and media will

continue to exist9. Dedović (2013) was accurate saying that „Bosnian national football team

provides an inspiring example of what Bosnian society could come, given the right conditions‟.

The World Cup euphoria probably had already faded and Bosnian population switched their

minds towards the general elections of October, 2014.

9 NOTE: the term used by Eric Cantona – French actor and former football player – in the Aljazeera documentary

‘Football Rebels’ where he is a narrator.

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Conclusion

The thesis tried to examine the connection between football and inter-ethnic relations in Bosnia;

more specifically, if football could play a positive role in the process of reconciliation. To

answer the research questions, several issues and case-studies have been examined. There were

several occasions when Bosnian society united; however, such unification was only temporary.

During 2014 anti-governmental protests, famous Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Ţiţek noted: „in

one of the photos from the protests, we see the demonstrators waving three flags side by side:

Bosnian, Serb, Croat, expressing the will to ignore ethnic differences. In short, we are dealing

with a rebellion against nationalist elites: the people of Bosnia have finally understood who their

true enemy is: not other ethnic groups, but their own leaders who pretend to protect them from

others‟ (Ţiţek, 2014). Spring floods (2014) also united Bosnian people. Even famous sportsmen,

such as Novak Đoković (tennis player, Serb), Luka Mladić (footballplayer, Croat) and Zlatan

Ibrahimović (footballplayer. Originally Bosniak, plays for Sweden) posted on their personal

twitter accounts photos, asking for help and donation for Bosnia, Croatia and Serbia.

Football has the potential of peace-building and reconciliation, but it depends how we use it.

Apart from peace, football can also trigger violence and nationalism. As the research showed,

there are at least three different levels of football, we have to deal with, in Bosnia. Football on

the grassroots level (youth, kids) and the famous Open Fun Football Schools programme, is

noted to be very successful. The main power of the programme is its nature – to attract kids from

different ethnic groups and promote tolerance and reconciliation among them. Many authors

argue that the programme appeared to be very successful, as it includes not only the youth, but

their parents and trainers as well who are from different ethnic groups. Football at the national

league level (local football clubs) is more problematic, as in this case, club allegiance goes in

parallel with ethnic groups. Local clubs are mainly mono-ethnic in Bosnia; therefore violence

and ethnic offences are integral part of almost every match. As Coke, a member of Veleţ Mostar

fun-club would say: „when there is a derby [match between Veleţ Mostar and Zrinjski Mostar] it

is like war in Mostar‟ (Mills, 2010: p.1127). During 2002 derby, the Helsinki Committee for

Human Rights recorded that the fans of Zrinjski triggered Veleţ supporters by displaying the

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banner reading that Veleţ would never be allowed to return to the Bijeli Brijeg.10

Unfortunately,

Mostar is not the only case of violent clashes during football matches. The same happens almost

everywhere.

The national football team looks more promising. Their qualification for World Cup 2014 raised

hopes in the country and beyond for possible reconciliation. The truth is that the „Dragons‟

represent the only multi-ethnic organization in the country; therefore many think that it should be

the example for the rest of the country to be followed. Even though World Cup euphoria had the

potential to temporary heal old wounds and bring Bosnian people together, the reality is still far

from reconciled Bosnia. Many Bosnian Croats and Serbs still identify themselves with Croatia

and Serbia respectively, rather than with Bosnia.

Reconciliation is a complex process that will take decades and probably even more. Football can

achieve reconciliation at the grassroots level (such as OFFS programme), but top-down

reconciliation requires much more. World Cup lasted for only a month, while dividing elements,

such as segregated educational system, separate political system continues to exist. As Dedović

(2013) says the national football team presents the image of what Bosnian society could be,

given the right conditions. As mentioned in the thesis, for successful reconciliation, grassroots

and top-down levels should proceed simultaneously. However, we have seen that top-down level

does not function properly. The ethnic divisions are intimately linked with each community. The

society is far from reconciled Bosnia it looks like they still consider the past as defining their

future. Even if theoretically speaking, football has the real potential of peace-building and

reconciliation, in Bosnian case this tool is not enough. It is very hard to believe that chasms

created by mortars, massacres, genocide and atrocities could be mended only by football.

10

NOTE: Bijeli Brijeg was supposed to be the stadium of Veleţ Mostar; however as the stadium is located in the West part of the town, after the war it is in the possession of Zrinjski Mostar.

47

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