Football tournaments should do one thing above all: have fun. Children can let off steam, score goals, celebrate victories together – or even get annoyed about defeats.
A competition at the weekend in Ilidza, a suburb of Sarajevo, was completely different. The sport quickly receded into the background there, and there was a scandal.
Clubs from Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia competed in the junior tournament with hundreds of participating teams. As a Croatian club played against a Serbian team, children in the stands shouted “Kill the Serbs”.
Masked storm hotel
A video on YouTube shows the scandal. The evildoers should be loud «heute.at» acted for juniors of a club from the Croatian city of Split.
The shouts from the stands had immediate consequences: the club was immediately disqualified and was at the tournament for the last time.
It remained according to the Bosnian TV channel N1 but not only with the call. On Sunday night, ten to 15 hooligans stormed a hotel where many of the 400 participating teams were staying. Parents of Serbian children were therefore attacked by the masked people.
Father slightly injured in knife attack
One family had a Serbian flag with them. That was reason enough for the perpetrators to launch a cowardly attack. “Suddenly a group came in, attacked us with tear gas and wanted to grab the flag,” a parent described the situation to N1.
A father was even the victim of a knife attack. Luckily he escaped with minor injuries. The police have now arrested ten people. Despite everything, the tournament continued on Sunday. (nad)