Are Bosnia's 'pioneering footballers succeeding where politicians have failed'?

In November 2009 I went to the industrial town of Zenica, where Bosnia play most of their home internationals, to see Bosnia play Portugal in the FIFA 2010 World Cup playoffs. I was in Bosnia anyway, researching the effects of football on reconciliation processes there. It was a hugely exciting event; if Bosnia won they would qualify for their first major international fooball tournament and for the first time there was a real sense that everyone in Bosnia was rooting for their national side.
 Later that month the respected Bosnian blogger Tim Clancy wrote:

Forget the euphoria and naive predictions that we were going to destroy Portugal. It FELT GOOD to be a Bosnian or at least from Bosnia and Herzegovina for a little bit. It worked. People clicked. They shed themselves of the fear and idiocy that has dominated here for so long. It did have the 'gel effect.'

I live here on the border of RS and Federation in Dobrinja. When Serbia plays football here its a like a gypsy wedding on my street. It's a proper party. When Bosnia played it was like a funeral. An eery silence occupied the neighbourhood. Not this time though. This time was different. And it was different everywhere in Bosnia. 

Two years later there is a certain sense of deja vu. Bosnia, again on the very edge of qualifying for a major international footballing tournament have again drawn Portugal in the playoffs. Again there is a hint of expectation in the air and a sense that almost all the Bosnians are hoping for a victory for their national side. This is not a given; for a long time the Bosnian Serbs have only supported Serbia whilst the Bosnian Croats have waved the šahovnica.

But this time Serbia hasn’t qualified and people are hoping that the Bosnian Serbs will throw their passion behind Bosnia. This isn’t a given; the political antagonisms in the country are as serious now as they have been since the 1992-95 conflict and the nationalistic politicians are continuing to whip up ethnic tensions.

Can football then be a tool that is used to counter the political nastiness? The seasoned Bosnian observer, Ed Vulliamy wrote an article for the Observer lauding the Bosnian national team for 'succeeding where the politicians had failed'. In it he talks of how, despite the ban on away fans at all Bosnian Premier League games following 4 instances of nationalistic violence, the Bosnian national team is a fully functioning multi ethnic organisation, a rare beast in Bosnia.

In many ways he is right. The best players are routinely picked for the national team, irrespective of ethnicity but this shouldn’t come as a surprise. It is in everyone’s interest for Bosnia’s national team to do well. The players can showcase their skills to the big European club teams and those who work in football all stand to benefit from a strong Bosnian performance. Bosnian Muslims have always wanted institutions that are multi-ethnic, for they have never wanted to have a state that is exclusively Bosnian Muslim. They have always wanted to select Bosnian Serbs and Croats but the Bosnian Serb and Bosnian Croat players have traditionally played for the stronger teams of Serbia and Croatia thus gaining their chance to play at major international tournaments. It is only now, with Bosnia as strong as Croatia and Serbia that players are able to choose to play for Bosnia without jeopardising their potential career.

The Bosnian Football Federation  (N/FSBiH known to all as Savez) is also a functioning multi-ethnic organisation - just. Until earlier this year it reflected the structure of the political arena, with Bosnian Serbs, Croats and Muslims all operating their own separate fiefdoms and a system of quotas for key positions in the overall national organisation. FIFA and UEFA, who had thought this was a temporary structure to accommodate ethnic sensitivities immediately following the conflict, realised they needed to take action to stop it from becoming permanent, and Bosnia was suspended from both organisations until it had reformed.

Many people thought that it wouldn't reform, the organisations within Savez would never agree. But they had forgotten that the people working for Savez have a personal interest in having a strong Bosnian team qualifying for a major international football competition. Against all expectations a new structure was agreed upon, a FIFA imposed ‘normalisation committee’ formed and Bosnia was readmitted to the fold in June 2011.

Corruption in Savez is endemic; the General Secretary and Finance and Marketing Secretary were sentenced to four years in prison for tax evasion and misuse of Savez funds. The general Bosnian population believes that the remaining officials are just as bad. I asked a friend who works for Savez whether the newly reformed Savez was any better and whether the new structure would hold.

'Don't hold your breath' he said 'we Bosnians are good at looking like we are complying with what we have been told to do but in reality doing nothing. Look at our politicians!'

For 90 minutes football can bring people together, but after that things revert very quickly to the status quo. The Bosnian Serbs might support Bosnia for this game, but they still love Serbia more. I interviewed a very senior executive in Savez who admitted that he supported Serbia first and then Bosnia, and I doubt he is the only one. What these football matches do do however is provide a snapshot of how people's sense of how they view Bosnia is changing. The November 2009 play off match mentioned earlier was the first time there was a palpable sense of Bosnian support across the country including the Bosnian Serb and Bosnian Croat areas. I'm imagining that it will be a little more defined this time, even with the increased political tensions, because there is a possibility that Bosnia will be the only ex-Yugo country to reach the Euro 2012 finals. In the current Yugo-nostalgia evident across the region, people will support other countries from the area in the absence of their own.

Victory for Bosnia on Friday, with Dzeko their talismanic superstar leading the charge will be a bright, bright spot in an otherwise dismal economic, social and political climate. Football alone can never bring about reconciliation, but it can serve to highlight how things are changing. If they beat Portugal on Friday most of the country will celebrate, and 15 years ago that was an unthinkable thing.