THis story is like something out of a movie. So much so that I had to double check before reporting. “That’s absolutely true,” Sport Sport journalist Endin Kozvich told MARCA. His media “caught” an Italian EUFOR soldier filming the Bosnian national team’s practice session in Butomir before Dragons security removed him from the ground.
With so much at stake – qualification to the World Cup and the economic and sporting benefits that come with it – it’s no surprise that all sorts of stories and anecdotes will be featured in the lead-up to one of the year’s hottest matches, Bosnia and Herzegovina vs. Italy in Zenica. But this takes the cake.
The situation was as follows. Bosnia had been training in Butmir and were waiting to travel to Zenica, 70 kilometers north of Sarajevo, on the eve of the match. The training session was open to the press (for the first 15 minutes), but alarm bells were raised after a man continued to record on his mobile phone what was happening during Serge Barbares’ team’s training in a media-free area. He was wearing a military hoodie and shorts, with a prominent Italian patch on his left shoulder.
Federal guards quickly removed the soldiers from the compound. Unlike other high-profile teams, Bosnia’s training center does not have canvas or panels to prevent prying eyes. Things will definitely change as a result of this incident.
The “spy” incident sparked an international dispute on a soccer world scale. The Bosnia and Herzegovina Football Federation sent a complaint to the EUFOR delegation, the European Union delegation in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
