Ivica Osim: We are a national team without quality

Honorary President of the Football Association of Bosnia and Herzegovina Ivica Osim said, appearing on the show Pressing on N1 television, that politics has become too entangled in sports in our country, especially in football, as the most popular sport, reports the Patria agency.

- The people follow it and that's how the fans behave. As far as BiH is concerned, no one in the world has fans like ours; they travel all over the world. For us, defeats are a catastrophe; practically, a person is not allowed to lose. There is a huge gap between what is written about the players, how much they earn, where they play, and what happens on the field. We think we are the best, and that is our biggest mistake.

People live hard, earn little, and then they see a player who has everything to develop but has no results. I don't believe that the players don't want to; everyone's desire is to affirm themselves so they can move on. This entire BiH national team, the national team made a path for them into the world, to money – Osim pointed out.

Osim added that after the national team's failure in the World Cup qualifiers, the easiest thing would be to dismiss coach Baždarević, but he is not the only one to blame for the poor results.

- No coach deserved that. The audience that usually comes associates many things with the coach. We always attach ourselves to some player, some coach, some personality with charisma. And that is hard to carry on one's back. However, it depends on the players, who have earned, who don't have major worries regarding their livelihood.

With us, everything is also tied; if we lose, they are not patriots, they won't... All of them want it. If someone is better, we need to admit it, but we find it hard to admit. For us, something negative first has to happen for us to come down to earth – says Osim.

Osim said that it is not good to constantly change coaches if we think we want to achieve some serious result.

- Personally, as far as I'm concerned, if we are going to pursue a policy that is not about changing, if we think we will move on, be normal, that should be a plus for Baždarević. We live off that in our region, off sensation. Everyone is waiting for it. First defeat and immediate dismissal. We rarely analyze anything.

The legend of Željezničar, former coach of Yugoslavia and Japan, said that we must be realistic and admit that, technically speaking, our national team doesn't have much quality.

- This BiH national team has been living on the same players and names for 20 years. Whether that is enough is another question. Whether they are worth as much as they earn and as much as they show on the field. Today, football is running, talent, technique, and we don't have that. We can be angry as much as we want.

- Technically speaking, we are a national team without quality. We play slowly, we run little. In competition with normal football national teams, we have no chance. We are prone to underestimation. We are the best, we don't give anyone the right to beat us. We must stop at some point; this leads nowhere – said Osim.

There is talk about potential coaches for BiH, names like Duško Bajević, Sergej Barbarez, and also Ivica's son Amar are mentioned.

- I am probably expected to say 'no' since we constantly talk about corruption, nepotism. Immediately after Amar was chosen, the newspapers would say that his dad chose him. He doesn't need that. Our criteria are backwards - said Osim. 

Osim said that "our ambitions are far greater than our capabilities.

- We demand too much from individuals; if there were no Džeko, we wouldn't have anyone to criticize. We treat some complexes through football that we shouldn't; we should turn to something else - said Osim.

In addition to Osim, the show also featured former BiH national team coach Miroslav Ćiro Blažević, who assessed Baždarević as the main culprit for the failure in the qualifiers.

- I think Mehmed Baždarević did not give the contribution that a coach must give. I don't know how much and where he made a mistake, but I'm afraid he made a mistake. I don't know how much he made that necessary move to bring that big victory for BiH that the fans deserved – said Ćiro.

At the very beginning of the show, Ćiro praised Ivica Osim, saying that few in this region have the credentials that Osim has.

- He is perhaps the greatest football expert, has credentials that few have, successfully leading Japan and Yugoslavia, I congratulate him for being active and relevant and that he can be of great use to young people – said Ćiro about Osim.