Post-Socialist Football in the Balkans: a Charade

Ozren Podnar reports...

Slovenian Clubs

CM Celje Publikum

Dravograd

Era Smartno

Hit Gorica

Koper

Korotan

Maribor

Mura

NK Ljubljana

Olimpija

Primorje

Rudar Velenje

The usually peaceful Slovenian soccer scene was shaken by bribery accusations launched by a local politician against the national team manager Bojan Prasnikar and the Mura football club director Zeljko Fundak.

Miran Vuk, a former players' agent and currently the chairman of the municipality of Zavrc, told Slovenske novice diary that he had to pay 10,000 Deutsch Marks (around 5000 euros) to Prasnikar to secure the first team slots in Maribor football club for his clients Nastja Ceh and Marko Kmetec, both later to become full internationals.

That supposedly happened during Prasnikar's very successful spell as Maribor's coach, when Fundak was the club's director.

Prasnikar and Fundak vehemently denied the charges, promising to take Vuk to court for slander and libel.

"I reject what has been printed in the press and I promise this case will go to the tribunals. It's a shame I have to waste my time on commenting on such ridiculous accusations," replied Prasnikar, who had been somewhat controversially confirmed as the national team head coach two weeks ago.

Vuk, however, did not back down but went on to repeat his accusations on radio and TV, assuring he was not afraid of going to court since he had proof of his claims.

If what Vuk says is true, then the instance of bribery could have taken place during the 1998/99 season, when Ceh and Kmetec played for Maribor under Prasnikar.

51-year-old Prasnikar suspects that the recent accusations are a part of a "campaign against him" started a month ago to have him removed from his managerial position. The campaign is supposedly being run from the capital of Ljubljana, where the undisputed reign of the provincial Maribor club and Prasnikar as its chief creator are bitterly resented.

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When Slovenia was narrowly pipped by Croatia on the way to the European Championship finals some media and Federation officials appealed for Prasnikar's dismissal and the appointment of the former NT coach Srecko Katanec or, alternatively, the inauguration of Brane Oblak, voted the best Slovenian player in the last 50 years.

Both Katanec and Oblak are linked to Ljubljana footballing circles that, allegedly, would like to have Prasnikar sacked. But, the Federation president Rudi Zavrl opted for keeping Prasnikar on, when the charismatic Katanec refused the offer to return to the post he had abandoned in the wake of the unsuccessful Slovenian 2002 World Cup campaign.

Ironically, Prasnikar used to play for Olimpija and then lead the team to two back-to-back League titles in 1993 and 1994, but later he went north to the industrial city of Maribor to create arguably the strongest side Slovenia has ever had: seven championships in the row (four to Prasnikar's credit) and the incredible run in the Champions' League in 1999/00 when the "Violets" eliminated Olympique Lyon in the preliminary round, defeated Dynamo in Kiev and held Bayer to a draw in Leverkusen.

The rise of players' agents

League Champions	Year
Maribor Branik	2003
Maribor Branik	2002
Maribor Branik	2001
Maribor Branik	2000
Maribor Branik	1999
Maribor Branik	1998
Maribor Branik	1997
HIT Nova Gorica	1996
Olimpija Ljubljana	1995
Olimpija Ljubljana	1994
Olimpija Ljubljana	1993
Olimpija Ljubljana	1992

Prasnikar, who strenuously denies any wrongdoings, may well prove to be innocent in the current affair, but the issue is in fact more relevant inasmuch as it introduces the real "kings" of the post-socialist soccer in the republics of the former Yugoslavia - the players' agents.

The disintegration of the united Yugoslav football league thirteen years ago has nearly ruined club football in the region. Whereas on the international level most ex-Yugoslav republics have produced decent sides - Croatia, Slovenia, Serbia&Montenegro, with Bosnia&Hercegovina recently coming into contention, the newly formed national leagues have gradually slipped into ridicule.

Tiny nations like Slovenia and Macedonia (the size of Wales), Croatia (a little smaller than Scotland) and Serbia&Montenegro (a sibling to Greece) could not create football leagues of any sporting or financial significance.

Along with the united soccer competition, big rivalries between the leading Slav clubs were disrupted, and each newly formed little league has turned out to be a two-horse race at best (Hajduk-Dinamo in Croatia, Red Star-Partizan in Serbia, Sarajevo-Zeljeznicar in Bosnia), while in Slovenia one team - Maribor - has ruled unrivaled for the past seven years.

The dwindling crowds accompanied with an ever-decreasing television and sponsorhips revenues forced the clubs to sell any good players abroad - to the immense joy of the people involved in the trade.

Converted into a little more than export companies, the clubs kept on competing in their tiny insignificant league competitions for one reason alone: to show their merchandise (players) to the potential buyers. The players' agents became more and more important, rising from the obscurity to being de facto the most powerful personalities in sport in the Balkans.

Players' agents (who in these parts call themselves "managers") control the existence of practically every single club by purchasing players' rights early on in their careers and then dictating the extension of players' contracts and pressuring the coaches into fielding "their" players in order to up their chances of transfering them abroad.

The sole purpose of the charade called national league competitions in the small Balkan nations is to make sure the players' agents and the clubs' directors collect their part in re-selling of footballers, only reinvesting so much money back into the clubs to keep them going.

Ozren Podnar