ye they did mostly due to terrible keeper mistakes but they showed there class in france..they also got unlucky against france when thuram commited a clear foul on jarni for the second goal but the ref did not call it..that team was a joy to watch in the 90s with all the great technical players in that team..
Population means nothing, it's passion for the game and replicating that on the pitch, very few countries have the sporting passion that they do in the balkans, it's something to be very proud of... the netherlands is another good example... Within 20 years you'll be in the same country again... part of a federal Europe no doubt... The thing i had noticed is that a lot of the players who play for croatia/serbia/bosnia were born and raised in otehr countries, I know the ideology of ethnic nation state is still strong in your countries, but in England I the idea of being English being synonymous with the ethnic group rather than a state of mind is slowly eroding. Basically what i am saying I don't feel easy when i see players not physically from a nation playing for that team, so the likes of misimovic shouldn't really count...
They were helped by horrific officiating in the play-offs. Now, I don't expect you to mention this, though. But it is true...
As a former Yugoslav (love the sound of that ) I am pretty sure that we would be tittle contenders at EURO 92, 96 and WC 94, 98... We had so much going for us after Italia 90, we were dumped by Argentina in the quarter finals after penalties. Played with ten men after 29th min. due to the red card which Hadzibegic received. Even after that we did to Argentinians whatever we pleased but no goal to show for it . It's stupid to talk about unified team today, but it's not stupid to talk about a unified league. Dinamo, Hajduk, Sarajevo, Velez, Zeljo, Zvezda, Partizan, Vojvodina, OFK, Vardar and others would benefit a lot if there was an united league between former countries!
Pretty much agree with everything in this post. The unified league has been mentioned on several occasions. It honestly needs to happen...... And with the European Superleague that Wenger seems to be backing regional leagues and competitions aren't that far away if one thinks hard. If the European Superleague happens, then that will pave the way for the Yugoslavian league. The only problem is what happens to the Champions League and all the other domestic leagues?
Are you kidding? Imagine Delije in Sarajevo, Grobari in Zagreb, BBB in Belgrade... There would be incidents and riots every week.
People need to realize something... peace or our football will languish for years to come. Either that, or make a riot police that will beat the crap out of the fans if any incidents break out. I like the Delije for their coreography, but everyone needs to realize that fact. Even if there are provocations.. the only way football will become better is to have a united league as only top 2 or three sides in each country are 'decent.'
That's just not realistic. We will all see how far from an united league we are when a Serbian club (Zvezda/Partizan) will face a Croatian club (Hajduk/Dinamo) in Europe.
Another problem is the lack of depth in the leagues. There are about 4-6 quality games a season, mainly the top three sides playing one another, and then when they play someone in Europe they need to find that extra gear, which can be very difficult to do at the beginning of the season. Imagine if it was Red Star, Partizan, Vojvodina, Dinamo Zagreb, Hajduk Split, FK Sarajevo, Slavija Sarajevo, Zeleznjicar, Zeta and other teams facing each other every week. The quality of play would eventually improve and some youngsters would stay until 22 or 23 unlike today's better players leaving at 18, 19...
I agree it would be like the dutch league although losing players it is increasing in popularity. Also it will maybe stop the players who go to laces like Russia, Ukraine and Czech rep to play...
We already have united basketball league. When that started there were fan brawls and so on, but not anymore. People got bored of it, sure the first games will include lots of hooliganism, but eventually it will die off.
great points, we had "big" riots in London yesterday between west ham and millwall and the media are going crazy, but it is obvious it was because they haven't played in a while. Anyone who remembers when saints and portsmouth reconvened their rivalry knows that the first few times are chaotic then it dies down. No doubt it would be the same here, afterall why would the fans jeopordise a great league, with the potential of greater players for a bit of violence...