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Sunday, 22 June 2014

3 + 1 Articles on Bosnian National Squad and Football Fans

After last night's Nigeria-Bosnia match, Bosnia and Herzegovina had a farewell to Brasil 2014. For Bosnia, the match against Iran will not be more than a struggle for prestige. In this circumstance, we have more time to read about Bosnian football culture, than watching the games.

In June, three articles are published about Bosnian football and the fans of the Bosnian national football team. 


Simon Kuper's article published in June 6, 2014 in Fiancial Times titled "Bosnia and Herzegovina's World Cup Debut" is the first one. In the article, Kuper does not have a claim to discover something new about football in Bosnia. But, having been stayed in Bosnia to work on this article, he just transmits the Bosnian reality through his eyes. Without doubt, it is a great joy to read Bosnian football from the writer of "Football Against Enemy", the legendary masterpiece on sociology of football. 

It is known that, the person who only knows about football, in fact does not know anything football. That is why Kuper's articles are that enjoyable to read and they are that brain blooming: Because his point of interest is not only football. Indeed, when he was in Sarajevo, he wrote one more article titled "Sarajevo: The Crossroads of History" about the 100th anniversary of Ferdinand's assasin, which was the reason to start the First World War.

This is the article, by which I mean as +1 in the headline of this blog entry.

The second article is written by a young journalist: Fatih Saboviç. As can be understood from his surname, he is of Bosnian origin living in Turkey. He wrote an article titled: "Boşnak, Hırvat, Sırp Omuz Omuza" (Bosniaks, Serbs and Croats are Shoulder to Shoulder) relying on an interview he did with the leader of Bh Fanticos. The article is in Turkish and was published in Hürriyet daily newspaper one day before Nigeria-Bosnia match, June 20, 2014. Like Kuper, Fatih is also interested in many other issues apart from football as well and a young journalist around 23-24 years old, which would be nice to keep an eye on. 
Despite his young age, the codes of ethics of journalism that he respects, his maturity in his vacational professionlism and moreover his standpoint in life makes him better than many of those who are regarded as masters of sports journalism in Turkey. This interview was based on intelligent questions, with cleverly put outcomes. 

The only thing I oppose in this article is the title. Only in a small part of the interview, Sanin Kariç, the leader of BH Fanaticos menitons about his will more than the reality: "Croats and Serbs in Bosnia are also with us.. We all cosntruct a united power". And it was carried to the headline by the ediotr of the newspaper. 


The third article examines the issue from an opposite point of view. In fact, more than describing the current situation it seeks to find reasons about why the Bosnian Serbs and Bosnian Croats do not support the Bosnian national football team. The article written by me, titled "Perception of Bosnia and Herzegovina's Qualification to World Cup 2014" was published last week in the latest issue of Sportmont, the journal of the Montenegrin Academy of Sports.

I had writtten a blog entry about my visit to Podgorica last May. Although I could not take attention of Genclerbirligi club management for the trasnfer of Stefan Magusa, at least I managed to write an acadamic article.

I think, those who are interested in Bosnian football culture will enjoy reading those articles..


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