When Bosnia and Herzegovina enters the 2026 World Cup, it is easy to see it as a footballing saga. A small country with a surprising national team and an often politically depressed, disappointed and poorer population that for a moment can gather around something other than corruption, resignation and everyday difficulties. Bosnia's presence in the World Cup is also about something older regarding the country's football history. Because it also deals with topics such as class, the labor movement, socialist and communist ideas and experiences of creating community and cooperation beyond the ethnic, religious and national.
Bosnia is often described as one of Europe's most complicated, poor and dysfunctional countries. The famous Dayton Agreement created peace and ended the war, but also a system where ethnic power-sharing, weak institutions and political blockages became part of everyday life. Ethno-nationalist parties have since been able to mobilize people through fear, historical myths and mutual suspicion.
At the same time, Bosnia also has a different history than just war, hatred and division. It is about workers, local associations, industrial towns, anti-fascism, communists, young people and city dwellers who created institutions where people could meet and interact as neighbors, comrades, citizens and supporters. Football is an important part of this history, especially when it comes to cities and towns where there were industries and factories.
Workers' sports clubs and Mostar as the birthplace of football in Bosnia
One of the most famous examples when it comes to politics and Bosnian football history is FK Velež Mostar named after a mountain. The club was founded in 1922 as a sports club for workers with connections to the early social democratic and more revolutionary environment. In this way, Velež was part of the workers' movement, organizing around social rights, class unity and trade union associations.
Mostar made Velež even more symbolic because the city was mixed, where Muslims, Christians, Jews, Croats, Serbs and others lived, worked in the same workplaces and shared public spaces. The creation of Velež was also about the fact that religion and nationality were not always the most important thing for people, because there were other factors such as work, neighborhood, everyday life and shared political ideas. It is worth mentioning that the coach of the Bosnian national team, Sergej Barbarez, was born and raised in Mostar, where he played for Velež as a youth.
In Sarajevo, there is a similar story through FK Željezničar (Railway Workers). The club was founded in 1921 by railway workers in a city where several sports clubs were tied to ethnic or religious communities. The club's development became an example of how residents could create community through a focus on work, class politics and local solidarity.
Željezničar's local rival FK Sarajevo has a different background and a more “elitist” history . The club was created in 1946 through the merger of Udarnik (The Struggler) and Sloboda (Freedom) and was more of a post-war institutional project. The Socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina wanted to build new symbols, institutions and narratives, so it was felt that the capital needed a strong club. Where Velež and Željezničar emerged from below, FK Sarajevo became an expression of state socialist social construction from above.
Football in the service of socialism and nationalism
When it comes to political ideas and their impact on everyday people, Bosnia's football history is complicated and contradictory. It is said that football in Bosnia was born in Mostar, and one of the country's oldest clubs is Zrinjski Mostar, named after a nobleman and commander during the Habsburg Empire. After the war, Mostar was effectively divided between a western Croatian side and an eastern Bosnian side. The rivalry between Velež and Zrinjski therefore became more than a derby, as it is still about politics and contradictions today.
Zrinjski was founded in 1905 by a Croatian youth association and was banned after World War II by the new communist regime because the club's name was considered to be in conflict with new identity political ideas and processes. When Zrinjski was resurrected in 1992, it also became a symbolic revenge for a Croatian institution that had been banned under socialism. Today, despite political problems and controversies, Zrinjski is among the best in the country.
Another club that excels in sports and whose history also deals with the complicated history is Borac Banja Luka . The name means “fighter” and was founded in 1926 as a workers’ sports club with connections to local communists in Bosnia’s second largest city. Today, however, Borac is associated with symbolism and politics based on Serbian nationalism that characterizes much of the public life in the country’s entity Republika Srpska (Republic of Serbia) . In connection with Bosnia playing against Italy in qualifying matches for the upcoming World Cup, Borac’s supporters expressed support for Italy.
How the history of football shows that Yugoslavia, like Bosnia, is not about “ancient ethnic hatred”
Football in Bosnia is not just about examples of how Bosnia is dysfunctional institutions, corruption and ethnic division. It is historically reminiscent of how Bosnia is also about other factors, examples and experiences such as the labor movement, communists, anti-fascism, urban culture, local solidarity and collective co-creation. In a country where so much has been done to keep people apart, football shows that people can also come together around something in common.
The history of football in Bosnia also applies to the history of Yugoslavia, of course, because the country's bloody collapse should not be understood as the result of some ancient ethnic hatred. Nationalism became violent but grew as a result of several deeper crises that characterized the country during the last decade. During the 1980s, Yugoslavia was affected by many problems such as inflation, unemployment, regional divisions and dependence on international loans and credits.
As the economy deteriorated and the (con)federal system weakened, nationalism became a way for political elites to redirect discontent and strengthen their power. Economic crisis, political opportunism and nationalist mobilization, including through football and clubs, tore apart shared institutions and narratives. At the same time, the socialist period should not be romanticized, among other things because Yugoslavia was not a liberal democracy and the state was governed by a one-party system and authoritarian methods.
It would also be equally wrong to let nationalist myths dominate the entire history . In football's archives, club badges, stands and memories there are concrete examples of institutions that people built together regardless of one's ethnicity. When Bosnia plays the World Cup, it is therefore not just about results because it is about a country where politics is often blocked, where young people are leaving the country and where nationalist elites profit from keeping old conflicts alive.
When Bosnia and Herzegovina enters the 2026 World Cup, it's easy to see it as a footballing saga. A small country, a surprising national team, a population that for a moment can come together around something other than political crises, corruption and everyday difficulties. At the same time, Bosnia's presence in the World Cup is about more than sport. It also opens up a larger story about the country when it comes to heritage, experiences and historical examples of creating community in a society where politics and institutions keep people depressed and divided.
I wonder how big of an opportunity they have, in just the *short* term.
Branko Milanovic has written a thought-provoking article about the extreme commercialization of football at https://branko2f7.substack.com/p/a-different-game.
And I wonder if the globalization of it has not contributed to the development. It is capital-intensive, and it concentrates attention on the “winners”, global.