EURO STORIES - YUGOSLAVIA 1992
Andy Greeves
Nadan Hadzic explains the circumstances around Yugoslavia's expulsion from UEFA Euro 1992 and the implications for the country's talented generation of players at that time.
The Yugoslavia national team was on the crest of a wave in the early 1990s. The country's Under-20 team had won the Youth World Cup in 1987, and the backbone of the national team had won the European Cup (now UEFA Champions League) in 1991 with Red Star Belgrade. Affectionately nicknamed the 'Brazilians of Europe', owing to their expansive attacking football and a multitude of technically gifted players, the national team featured the likes of Dejan Savicevic, Robert Prosinecki, Zvonimir Boban, Predrag Mijatovic and Sinisa Mihajlovic who became household names for several leading European clubs in the 1990s.
Yet by 1992, the country had ruptured into a ruthless full-scale war. There had been murmurs for some time that Yugoslavia's conflict may lead to the team's expulsion from UEFA Euro 1992. The discussion around Yugoslavia's participation in the tournament had caught the attention of those beyond the world of sport.
Since Yugoslavia was scheduled to play England in the opening game, British Prime Minister John Major had threatened to boycott the tournament if Yugoslavia was allowed to play. New UN sanctions imposed on Yugoslavia in May 1992 specified that Yugoslavia would no longer be allowed to be represented in international sporting competitions.
Speaking at the airport after being sent home from the tournament before a ball had been kicked, Predrag Mijatovic displayed his disappointment, "What can I say… We're all sad to be leaving these championships." Denmark, having finished second in Yugoslavia's qualifying group, were drafted in as last-minute replacements, even travelling on a bus which still had Yugoslavia's FA logo on its sides. Sporting irony or otherwise, call it what you will, Denmark would go on to win the tournament.
In truth, Yugoslavia's slow-motion collapse had begun well before that. The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia had been built on the foundations of the anti-fascist resistance during the Second World War. The country's President Josip Broz Tito had brought a group of diverse ethnicities and religions together under the slogan of "Brotherhood and Unity" and his death in 1980 caused tremendous sorrow across the country. News of his death was announced in the middle of a game between two of Yugoslavia's arch-rivals Hajduk Split and Red Star Belgrade, bringing together the players who began to weep and led to a chant dedicated to Tito being spontaneously sung by a packed stadium.
The subsequent power vacuum after Tito's death led to the emergence of nationalism, and by the beginning of the following decade, football stadiums would rarely play host to such displays of togetherness. This shift was strikingly illustrated at the Maksimir Stadium in Zagreb, at a friendly game ahead of the 1990 FIFA World Cup, where Yugoslavia's national anthem was met with a raucous of boos by the home supporters. As Richard Mills, Associate Professor in Modern European History at the University of East Anglia, explained to me, "Yugoslavia was well on the way to disintegration at this stage, and it's unsurprising that many football fans in the Croatian capital relished the opportunity to reject symbols of Yugoslav unity."
Once the bubbling tension eventually escalated into the first armed conflicts in the spring of 1991, committing to represent Yugoslavia became increasingly challenging. As Croatia was on the verge of declaring independence from Yugoslavia, players from Croatia who had played for Yugoslavia stopped accepting national team call-ups after May 1991.
The qualification campaign for Euro 1992 consequently became an unusual combination of a national team being in exceptional form, with a near-spotless qualification campaign, set against the backdrop of political turmoil and an uncertain future for the country. Home games were poorly attended, due to both the country's growing divisions and a collapsing economy. Mehmed Bazdarevic, one of Yugoslavia's players from Bosnia-Herzegovina, described that period vividly to me, "We began to realise that our country, which meant everything to us that wore the jersey, no longer existed. Any mention of Yugoslavia was bringing such hatred and tension to some people's minds."
Bosnia-Herzegovina was next to gain independence from Yugoslavia in March 1992, but by the time the tournament was on the horizon in the spring of 1992, the country had become the scene of widespread bombardment, massacres and ethnic cleansing. A few weeks before the tournament began, Mehmed Bazdarevic was one of the players from Bosnia-Herzegovina who decided he would no longer represent Yugoslavia, "We wanted to stay in the national team for as long as possible. We thought that perhaps the national team could be a way of showing to people that we could still live together. But once the first grenade fell on Bosnia-Herzegovina, my decision was made. It was important to show solidarity with our people," Bazdarevic explains.
On the eve of the tournament, Yugoslavia's head coach Ivica Osim, a native of Sarajevo, gave an emotional resignation speech on 23rd May 1992. Sarajevo had been under bombardment and Osim's family was trapped in the city. "On the scale of human suffering, I cannot reconcile events at home with my position as national manager."
He stated that resigning was the only thing he could do for that city, "so that you can remember that I was born in Sarajevo, and you know what's happening." This heartfelt emotion shown from a man who had devoted so much to the country he adored re-enforced the legendary status of an already fabled sporting figure.
The splintering of the country did not seem to cause a splintering of the bonds among the players. Mehmed Bazdarevic and Faruk Hadzibegic, both playing in France at the time, came to Zurich Airport to wish their teammates the best of luck ahead of their flight to Sweden for the Euros. “It was an emotional farewell as it was the end of something that had lasted so many years.” Bazdarevic recalls, “At the same time, you’re wondering how bad things could get back home. Along with the tears of many of the players and coaching staff, I remember the late Sinisa Mihajlovic saying to us – ‘My only wish is that we will play together again’.”
A unified Yugoslavia team never got the chance to play again at a major tournament, and through political events outside of their control, a plethora of gifted players never fully excelled on the international scene. A somewhat inevitable what if scenario emerges on the team’s potential had the country stayed together. “I felt we were the absolute favourites for the Euros, I simply couldn’t see a team that could beat us,” Bazdarevic says, “And beyond that we could challenge to become world champions. But we never dreamt that our national team could be taken away from us in such a brutal way.”
© Andy Greeves & Soccerphile.com
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