Director's Arbitrariness: Hubijar Banned All Clubs from Using the Shooting Range in Zetra!

President of the Assembly of the Shooting Federation of Sarajevo Canton Ramiz Bakija issued a press release regarding the decision made by the director of ZOI '84 Midhat Hubijar, reports the Patria news agency.

- We want to inform you about a precedent that has not occurred in the recent history of our sport, and the decision of the director of ZOI 84 which bans the use of the shooting range within the Zetra hall for all elite shooting sports clubs from the area of Sarajevo Canton, i.e., for elite athletes, national team members, Olympians, and children of all ages.

Namely, although the protocol on the use of the shooting range, which defines the conditions of use, was duly signed by the competent Ministry back in January, the problem arose because director Midhat Hubijar demanded a revision of the said protocol in a way that he ultimatively demanded a drastic reduction of the already minimal training sessions, from the current three hours a day to only one hour of training time for elite sports clubs.

The said protocol has been in force for 15 years and is the minimum required for all clubs from the canton that use this shooting range for their training.

After the Ministry did not accept their proposal, the management of ZOI 84, led by Hubijar, banned the use of the shooting range for all sports clubs and their competitors. The protocol for other sports is in force and their competitors and clubs are training regularly. This raises our suspicion that some private arrangements regarding the shooting range are also involved in all of this.

It is very important to remind that when the renovated Zetra was taken over by the International Olympic Committee, which invested money in the renovation of the Zetra sports complex, our side (Sarajevo Canton) accepted the obligation to ensure, at minimal prices, the use of all sports facilities, including the shooting range, and the conduct of the training process for elite clubs and athletes.

The signatories and guarantors of that protocol are the International Olympic Committee, the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sarajevo Canton, and the Olympic Committee of Bosnia and Herzegovina. This ban, among other things, violates the agreement.

We ask you to inform and acquaint the public with the arbitrariness of the management of this company, which it has been exercising for some time against the workers of ZOI '84, and now also against elite athletes and clubs.

We want to remind that shooting is one of the most trophy-winning sports in our country, and Sarajevo, even in the former state, was a symbol of elite shooting and results. For illustration, a fact that the sports public should be proud of is that Sarajevo had representatives at all Olympic Games from the distant 1972 Munich Olympics, all the way to the last one held in London.

Even the largest world and European cities do not have this reference, and if they did, they certainly would not allow the mentioned treatment of such a sport. In addition, the two best results of Bosnian-Herzegovinian Olympians are precisely from shooting (8th place in Barcelona 1992 and 6th place from Sydney 2000).

We need not mention how much a single missed training session affects the achievement of top results, i.e., how great and irreparable the damage already done is. We already have to cancel the International SIXTH APRIL TOURNAMENT, which is organized as part of the celebration of Sarajevo City Day and is on the calendar of the European Shooting Confederation and in the program of the City of Sarajevo for April 6.

On our part, we tried to influence the mentioned decision of the director with arguments, among other things, with a very positive role and mediation of the Olympic Committee of Bosnia and Herzegovina, but without success.

We sincerely hope that with your help and public pressure we will solve the problem “in-house” and that we will not have to seek help from the International Olympic Committee and thus damage the reputation of our sport, as well as the city, canton, i.e., the state, for which the athletes fight and which they build in the best possible way, the statement reads.