No place for the flag of the defunct Herzeg-Bosnia in stadiums of the civilized world

By: Haris Ljevo

Stewards at the match between Croatia and Iceland at the World Cup, played last night in the Russian city of Rostov, ordered a fan of the Croatian national team from Livno to remove the flag of the former so-called Herzeg-Bosnia.

This is an illegal flag that is banned at all sports competitions and public places in Europe.

This is not the first time that organizers of major sports events in Europe have confiscated items bearing the symbols of the failed entity from Croatian fans from Bosnia and Herzegovina.

It seems that the borders of Bosnia and Herzegovina and what Bosnia and Herzegovina is are better known everywhere in the world than they are known by many citizens living in this country.

Before the match of the European Basketball Championship between Spain and Croatia, played last year in the Romanian city of Cluj, one of the hosts of the championship, security at the entrance to the hall confiscated flags and banners from Croatian fans that bore the names of cities from Bosnia and Herzegovina: Mostar, Posušje, Livno, Neum, Ljubuški...

The reason for this is that the World Basketball Federation FIBA has a rule prohibiting fans from carrying flags with names of cities from other countries.

Fans of the Croatian national team from Bosnia and Herzegovina were angry after the match because security did not return the confiscated flags after the game ended.

This is not the first time that Croatian fans from Bosnia and Herzegovina have received a lesson in geography.

When Croatia organized the World Handball Championship about ten years ago, even Croatian security guards in the halls in Split, Zagreb, and other cities where the championship was played confiscated props bearing the symbols of the so-called Herzeg-Bosnia from fans, because they had to respect international rules.

About ten years ago, during a tennis match between Ivan Ljubičić and Marcos Baghdatis, the commentator on Eurosport called Ljubičić a Bosnian tennis player about ten times, even though there were hundreds of Croatian flags in the stands of the stadium in Melbourne.

He didn't care. He had prepared well for the match and armed himself with information stating that Ljubičić was born in Banja Luka, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where he grew up, and the fact that he was forced to flee to Croatia due to the war and play for it was completely irrelevant to the English commentator. For him, Ivan Ljubičić is a Bosnian, period.

If the English, Romanians, and the rest of the world know better than the fans of the Croatian national team from Bosnia and Herzegovina where they are from and which country they belong to, then we have a serious problem.

Unless it's just a case of skipping geography classes in elementary school. Then, somehow, one can turn a blind eye.