BiH on par with Argentina: Four Bosnian coaches at the World Cup in Russia, while domestic football is in the mud

Written by: Haris Ljevo

The World Cup in football is being played this summer in Russia, and among the 32 participating countries, unfortunately, the national team of Bosnia and Herzegovina is not there.

However, although our players did not manage to qualify for the World Cup, BiH will not be without its representatives in Russia. As many as four national teams will have coaches from BiH on their benches.

Vahid Halilhodžić will lead the Japanese national team, Vladimir Petković the Swiss, Zlatko Dalić the Croatian, and Mladen Krstajić the Serbian.

Along with the world power Argentina, which will also have four coaches in Russia, BiH will have the most representatives, which is the best indicator of how successful our sportspeople are in the world and how much they are valued.

What is nevertheless concerning is the fact that none of the four built their coaching careers in BiH. For this country, they are only tied by their place of birth and nothing more. If their appearance in Russia is an indicator of how valued they are in the world of football, then this other fact is an indicator of how low football and sports in general in BiH have sunk and how poorly things are being done.

Many seek an excuse for inaction in money, but one must be realistic and say that it is not all about money. A lot also depends on the organization within sports associations, and we must be honest and admit that the level of professionalism here is extremely low, not to say amateurish.

In previous months, we witnessed a race for the selection of a new coach for our national team, in which, after bidding with numerous domestic and foreign names, the Croatian expert Robert Prosinečki won.

From a human and professional standpoint, nothing can be held against Prosinečki; he is a true star of European and world football, and he is, perhaps, the least important in this whole story. However, his selection says much more about the current state of the association.

The fact that, apart from Amar Osim, no other domestic coach intended to seriously enter the competition for the coaching position is yet another proof of the poor state of domestic football. Because no one who is better acquainted with the real situation in the association wanted to impose themselves.

As long as many things are not improved for the better in domestic sports, we will watch numerous domestic coaches on the benches of European and world selections.