Why is Sarajevo Canton investing citizens' money in a club whose leaders are shutting down youth programs and sending Sarajevo's children to other clubs?

By: Amina Čorbo-Zećo

The Ministry of Culture and Sports of KS also financed FK Sarajevo last year, and what I am extremely proud of is that the justification of funds was mostly for the youth program. One of the few sports collectives that justified funds for the youth program, and these are not insignificant funds.

We will see how it will look this year. That is up to the management of the Sarajevo club,” said the Minister of Culture and Sports of KS Kenan Magoda today, after being asked where the Sarajevo Canton's money is going, considering that the FK Sarajevo Academy decided to abolish the federal league for juniors and cadets this year, leaving more than 40 boys from Sarajevo without the opportunity to train at FK Sarajevo.

Mostly, these are Sarajevo children who grew up in the 'Asim Ferhatović Hase' school or other Sarajevo football schools, selected as talented.

We asked the minister if he was aware that the Academy had shut down generations playing in the Federal League and dismissed about 50 boys? The minister replied that he had visited the camp and that the conditions were ideal, but we wonder for whom?

The academy has been working on cost reduction for years, even seeking sponsorships from parents (which is a conflict of interest), etc.

Minister Magoda clearly did not know this information before today's ceremony, where it was announced that the Ministry of Culture and Sports of KS would be a co-financier of FK Sarajevo. The Sarajevo that had, in its starting lineup in the match against Aktobe, three players from BiH, of which only one was a child from Sarajevo.

The minister tried to explain to the author of these lines that the Academy has excellent working conditions, but not whether he will condition FK Sarajevo to re-launch the Asim Ferhatović Hase football school, because Sarajevo's children currently do not have the opportunity to be members of FK Sarajevo, as decided by Matthias Leterme, the general director of FK "Sarajevo", who recently joined the club and literally said that children need development, and that there are many good clubs in the city of Sarajevo, and that they have focused only on players who, in their opinion, can be the future and play for the first team of Sarajevo.

Which experts declared 14-year-old children unpromising is known to managers and local fixers who bring children from other parts of BiH to FK Sarajevo. There is nothing wrong with that, because talents do not only reside in Sarajevo, but it is wrong to finance a team with the money of Sarajevo's citizens, which justifies funds for youth programs, and then, for the sake of 'savings', shuts down two entire generations(!?).

The current director of the Academy, Alen Škoro, is actually a 'golden fish' who has fulfilled the wishes of foreigners around the club, although, I am sure, he is well aware that without youth programs, there are no results.

We have seen this in previous years, because FK Sarajevo has been waiting for a title for a long time, or some group stage of European competitions, while qualifying matches against Kazakh teams are treated as an 'entry into the Champions League'.

Because there was an Italian 'expert' Matteo Cioffi who took money, shut down the Asim Ferhatović Hase football school and left, a foreigner Borojević came, took money, started talking and left, Mensur Dogan briefly appeared as head of the Academy, and now they want to use the legend Alen Škoro... We should not be surprised that a Dženan Ušćuplić, Sedin Torlak, let alone Predrag Pašić, do not fit into the visions of these experts...

Something is not right then!

Translated, the money goes to FK Sarajevo, and it is the money of the citizens of Sarajevo Canton who have to send their children to other clubs, while foreigners in the first team earn exorbitant salaries.

“I know that the conditions in the Sarajevo Academy are excellent, I have visited them. It is not the Ministry's job to dictate the policy of any club, it is somewhat like a regime for politics to determine. This is an association, a non-governmental organization, and they set the policies. Of course, we will monitor it because no sports collective can develop without a youth program,” Magoda will say.

And it is not your job, minister, to determine FK Sarajevo's work plan, but it is your job to care about the children of Sarajevo Canton, and then accordingly, to give money to clubs where these children become, first and foremost, exemplary citizens, and then successful athletes.

Sit down, ask yourselves where the money of Sarajevo Canton is going if there are three players from BiH in Sarajevo's starting lineup, of which one is a child from Sarajevo, Nidal Čelik. What are we paying for, who are we paying for average sports results!? Lest anyone think that the dismissed children were 'bad at football', it is important to note that these are boys brought in as promising talents, who after years and years have been practically written off, just for the sake of savings.

From everything that is happening in and around the Academy, it can be concluded that the only task is to satisfy the form and comply with the Federation's rules, and not at all to develop young footballers. So we ask ourselves, why not invest our money in clubs and schools that are truly working on the development of young footballers?