Perpetually in Power: Will Honest Elmedin Konaković Tell Us How He Sank the Basketball Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina!

Written by: Muamer Bandić

"Now we no longer have to convince anyone that supporting the Basketball Federation has a purpose, because the gold medal is the best sports result of all time in our country," said Elmedin Konaković on August 18, 2015.

Believe it or not, even back then, just like today, Elmedin Konaković was not an opposition figure, but was wreaking havoc in the Sarajevo Canton as the SDA premier, while simultaneously serving as the president of the Basketball Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

"The work of all selections for this year is in question. Resolving this issue is our priority, because if we don't solve it, no youth selection will go to the European championships. The bulk of the debt is 164,000 KM," said the president of the Management Board of the Basketball Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Dalibor Miloš, a month ago. He further explained that this debt was incurred between 2014 and 2016, precisely when the president of the Basketball Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina was our smartest and most honest minister ever, Elmedin Konaković, who held that position from 2013 to 2016 and left behind, what else but debts.

The debts that the then promising SDA cadre, and today reformer and European, Konaković created, could cost the Basketball Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina serious consequences, given that the accumulated debt with interest has grown to around 330,000 KM, and that Hotel Ilidža is demanding payment of the entire debt in a single installment.

This was dramatically announced to us yesterday by the Secretary General of the Basketball Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Dževad Alilhodžić, stating that this accumulated debt is a heavy burden for the Basketball Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which puts the upcoming Eurobasket qualifying match against Croatia in question.

Elmedin Konaković is currently the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bosnia and Herzegovina and one of the key stars of the Troika project, imposed by a strike against the constitutional order in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and at the state level. Although he often boasts about his basketball career, today Konaković is silent as a grave about yesterday's plea from the Basketball Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The problem facing the Basketball Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina has also echoed in neighboring Croatia, where they are eagerly listening to news from Sarajevo because the unpaid debts of the Basketball Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina could bring them direct qualification for Eurobasket.

Elmedin Konaković, Nermin Nikšić and Edin Forto, as the pillars of the new government, have long finished their work with Sarajevo sports, so today clubs from former villages are more successful than those from the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina. But this is not only the case with club sports, where we have even forgotten when a sports club from Sarajevo achieved any notable result, but also collective national team sports are hostages of the HDZ and SNSD policies implemented in practice by the Troika.

The Basketball Federation is barely surviving, on the verge of bankruptcy, and the same is the case with the Handball Federation of our country. These federations, in the not-so-distant past, had strong selections, national teams around which all of us who love our homeland Bosnia and Herzegovina gathered with joy. We once had joy and created beautiful images that went around the world.

With the arrival of the Troika's "reformists," everything collapsed and sank to the level of begging. Admittedly, our sports star Konaković watches top basketball today in Aleksandrovac, so perhaps KK Bosna or the national team of Bosnia and Herzegovina is not such a primary occupation for him. But, given that he is a person who likes to wave papers and accusations of mismanagement and corruption, it is time for papers to start being brought out from KK Bosna and the Basketball Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, just to see with what precision and diligence he performed those jobs. Given the debts incurred during his mandate and the ensuing collapse, it seems that he worked just as promptly then as he does today as minister.

Konaković is just like Vegeta, he meddles in everything except what his primary job is. At the same time, he has no idea about anything, except spinning already chewed populist clichés, pointing fingers at others and shifting responsibility from himself. We will probably, in the case of these debts, again hear the old spin: "The previous government is to blame!" But will anyone tell this politician: "But Pinocchio, for God's sake, you were the previous government and you are the current government!?"

I hope that these Troika figureheads will have at least a little shame and urgently resolve the debt of the Basketball Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, if the HDZ left them a few marks in the federal or state budget. Until then, they should be called out and pointed at because they ultimately created these debts.

The Bosnian nation deserves to watch the national team, in which NBA ace Jusuf Nurkić or one of the best European basketball players Džanan Musa plays, at Eurobasket. Wasn't it nice to be a Bosnian and Herzegovinian, after that masterful victory against Slovenia, led by one of the best world basketball players Luka Dončić, at the last Eurobasket? Therefore, no one should gamble with the opportunity to once again celebrate the successes of our Dragons!