BiH increasingly resembles an unserious national team, new coach only in the new year

SARAJevo, (Patria) - The BiH national football team will welcome the new year 2018 without a coach.

With the match against Estonia in Tallinn in early October, our national team concluded unsuccessful World Cup qualifiers, and that was also the last match for Mehmed Baždarević as coach.

Since then, dozens of names have passed through the media – very serious ones, as well as complete unknowns – who were offered the job, and many offered themselves to be the coach.

However, the Association has not yet decided who will succeed Baždarević and who will try to lead BiH to the European Championship in the next qualifiers.

After Kodro, Hadžibegić, Bajević, Okuka, Hadžiabdić, Antić, Bilić, Štimac, Seedorf, Katanec were eliminated from the competition for various reasons, some of them probably don't even know they were candidates, two names remain in contention – Amar Osim and Robert Prosinečki.

The decision on the new coach was supposed to be made on December 21, but it did not happen, as it was decided that detailed talks should be held with them in the next ten days, after which the Executive Board will decide who to entrust the national team to in the coming period.

Some believe that such a decision is not bad, considering that the financial situation in the Association is not the best, and that it would not be the smartest move to pay a coach and his assistants at a time when the national team has no matches.

There are still almost nine months until the start of the qualifiers, and there is plenty of time for the new coach – whoever is appointed – to prepare the national team in the best possible way.

At the end of January, the national team will play two friendly matches in the USA against the USA and Mexico, and since it is not an official FIFA date for friendly matches, the national team will be composed of players from the domestic league, as clubs will not release Džeko, Pjanić, Begović, and other top stars of the national team.

Although there is no official confirmation yet, it is rumored that the national team will be led on the American tour by the coaches of the U21 and Olympic teams of BiH, Vinko Marinović and Mirza Varešanović, who have extensive experience working with players from the Premier League of BiH, so it will not be a problem for them to select the best available forces.

It is difficult to expect that a third candidate for the coach position could emerge in the meantime besides Osim and Prosinečki, so it would be realistic to expect a new coach right at the beginning of the new year.

Prosinečki stated that money is not his priority (the Association can currently offer a maximum of 30,000 KM per month), but he set a condition that he chooses his assistants himself. This has always been difficult in our country, as consideration had to be given to the national key, not football knowledge, which could cost Prosinečki the job.

In the end, the choice would be narrowed down only to Osim Jr., who would thus get the opportunity, after winning numerous trophies at the club level with Željezničar, to show his worth as a national team coach.

It would be good to get a new coach as soon as possible, so that we can shed the label of an unserious European national team.