Come on BiB, be the Heart in the City

[Wonderwall]

HEART OF THE CITY come on BiB get it sorted out and lets see you on the OS

[Duckman]

I was in Sarajevo few weeks ago, and the market place was full of Dzekos shirts, city shirts of course ))) fake ones of course )))

[BlueinBosnia]

HEART OF THE CITY come on BiB get it sorted out and lets see you on the OS

Mate, there is nowhere in Sarajevo that deserves that title. To be honest, I'm a bit disappointed by City's research team for this.

It's not particularly popular to watch football in bars in Bosnia. The premiership is shown on the equivalent of the BBC, and due to there being no 3pm kickoff restrictions or anything, anyone can watch pretty much any City game in the comfort of their own home.

Bosnians are far more conservative than the British, and don't go to pubs for a few beers in the afternoon with the lads. It's simply not part of the culture.

The bar I used to run in Visoko, about 30km from Sarajevo, used to have a half-dozen or so of us in to watch games before Dzeko signed (including PALUS, who sometimes posts on here), but it really is a dive (30-plus year old tv, squattie unisex toilet, badly painted over swastika after a visit by neo-nazis, etc.), and therefore wouldn't have the type of image/branding City want. Also, it's in a town of about 40k, not really the most happening of cities. The bar's in a great location, though: an old late-Ottoman high street building, with the back build out over the river, so when you're playing pool, you're actually standing over the water.

Basically, there will be 4 Sarajevo pubs in the running; City Pub, Pirate Pub, Guinness Pub, and Celtic Pub. These are the 4 central 'tourist trap' bars.

City Pub- probably the closest to a 'laddish' place you'll find. Would never dream of showing night games, though, as it attracts a relatively sheik female clientele from around 7.30pm (6.30 UK time), who won't linger where football is being shown.

Pirate Pub- have never shown football in the past, their waiters are impatient and rude, and have short-changed me in the past (back in 2007, mind you, I haven't paid for drinks when I've been in since)

Guinness Pub- The best of a bad bunch. The owner is a decent guy, but the staff are sullen. They have a cellar for the football to be shown in, so it's nice and cool in summer/autumn, but warm and cosy in winter. Beer is very expensive, and the staff seem to be under instruction to sell you the most expensive thing on tap if you just ask for a pint, and don't specify the brand. I've been served a few dodgy pints in there, too, which the bar staff have refused to exchange for a fresh one.

Celtic Pub- If this place gets it, I will go absolutely spare. They prefer to show German football, and turned over once in the middle of the Derby. Also, if the bar staff have bets on games (which they all invariably do) your game will be interrupted by teletext flashing on and off while they check the current scores against their betting slips. This is a terrible habit of all Bosnian bar staff and clientele, but here it's worse than most places. You don't have this problem at City Pub, as there's a separate TV upstairs.

There are other cities worth mentioning- both Banja Luka and Tuzla are more 'happening' than Sarajevo, in my opinion. However, due to political/ethnic/general Bosnian problems, 'Dzeko-mania' won't be anywhere near so big. I can't comment on a single bar in Tuzla, but I can tell you it has the best boobs-per-capita figure of any city I have ever been to. What a Dulux catalogue is for paint colours, Tuzla is for breasts.

Mostar is the other big city, but it's not a place for watching football in a bar, for too many reasons to describe.

[lets all have a disco]

So basically,It's shit.

[Tokyo Blue]

Very informative, BiB, thanks. I imagine they like their football over there though. How well-supported are the clubs in the top division?

I would wet my kecks and laugh uncontrollably for hours if they picked Tokyo for this.

[BlueinBosnia]

Very informative, BiB, thanks. I imagine they like their football over there though. How well-supported are the clubs in the top division?

I would wet my kecks and laugh uncontrollably for hours if they picked Tokyo for this.

Everyone loves football, but the war coincided with the ban on English clubs competing in Europe, so Italian teams are much more supported amongst people my age and a bit older. Rags are predominant amongst the youth (ie under 22-ish).

However, Bosnia has a far larger number of lower league English club fans than probably any other country in Europe, thanks to the fact old football shirts were donated in clothing and relief parcels. I've met fans of Ipswich, Dundee, Charlton, Grimsby, Bristol Rovers, Swansea, Leeds, Derby and Luton, amongst others, purely due to this.

[Tokyo Blue]

Very informative, BiB, thanks. I imagine they like their football over there though. How well-supported are the clubs in the top division?

I would wet my kecks and laugh uncontrollably for hours if they picked Tokyo for this.

Everyone loves football, but the war coincided with the ban on English clubs competing in Europe, so Italian teams are much more supported amongst people my age and a bit older. Rags are predominant amongst the youth (ie under 22-ish).

However, Bosnia has a far larger number of lower league English club fans than probably any other country in Europe, thanks to the fact old football shirts were donated in clothing and relief parcels. I've met fans of Ipswich, Dundee, Charlton, Grimsby, Bristol Rovers, Swansea, Leeds, Derby and Luton, amongst others, purely due to this.

Sorry, mate, I phrased my question badly. I meant the teams in the Bosnian top flight in terms of attendances. Dod you get aong to any matches while you were there? How was it for atmosphere?

Nice to see fans of "smaller" English clubs around the world. I met a Japanese Gillingham fan a few years back.

[BlueinBosnia]

Very informative, BiB, thanks. I imagine they like their football over there though. How well-supported are the clubs in the top division?

I would wet my kecks and laugh uncontrollably for hours if they picked Tokyo for this.

Everyone loves football, but the war coincided with the ban on English clubs competing in Europe, so Italian teams are much more supported amongst people my age and a bit older. Rags are predominant amongst the youth (ie under 22-ish).

However, Bosnia has a far larger number of lower league English club fans than probably any other country in Europe, thanks to the fact old football shirts were donated in clothing and relief parcels. I've met fans of Ipswich, Dundee, Charlton, Grimsby, Bristol Rovers, Swansea, Leeds, Derby and Luton, amongst others, purely due to this.

Sorry, mate, I phrased my question badly. I meant the teams in the Bosnian top flight in terms of attendances. Dod you get aong to any matches while you were there? How was it for atmosphere?

Nice to see fans of "smaller" English clubs around the world. I met a Japanese Gillingham fan a few years back.

Yep, I went to quite a few of NK Bosna Visoko, in the 2nd League, a few odd matches, and a Sarajevo derby, although I mainly followed handball out there. Both Sarajevo clubs fill the stadiums for most games, particularly Zeljo (whose ground I love- it wouldn't look out of place in late 80s Britain, kind of like Maine Road meets St. Andrew's). Sarajevo have the (winter) Olympic stadium, which is a bit too big, although it's in a poor state, so parts of the upper terraces are semi-out-of-bounds.

It depends also on the size of the stadium, and, in some towns, on the ethnicity. That's where we get to Mostar:

Mostar has two teams; Zrinski and Velez. Velez is the historic team, predominantly supported by Bosniaks (Bosnian Muslims). After the war, Zrinski (revived from a team that was banned in Yugoslavia for supporting the Fascist Croat state during WW2) was formed. The historic stadium of Velez lies in the Croat part of the city, so they were thrown out, and Zrinski (exclusively supported by Croats) took over their stadium. Velez has massive support from all over Bosnia (they finished in the top 3 of the Yugoslav league 6 times), and even further afield in the Former Yugoslav states, but have to play in a makeshift 7,000 seater stadium.

Due to the whole ethnic thing, some towns are practically obligated to have a top-tier club, which cannot get relegated.

Atmosphere:
There are riots pretty much whenever any non-Croat team play Siroki Brijeg, since a Sarajevo fan (also a Croat) was shot and killed on the way to a game by a well-known hooligan, who, it seems, was given a gun by a policeman to fire a few shots into the Sarajevo fans. Sarajevo fans were in no way blameless, though, and had been rioting a fair bit. However, it seems as if this guy (Vedran Puljic) wasn't a part of the rioting, and just caught a stray bullet to the neck.
Sarajevo derbies can be pretty hectic, but comparably less so than a big English game, when you take into account the poorer levels of policing and surveillance in Bosnia. A few other teams are known for their hardcore fan bases, including Celik Zenica (Robijasi), Velez (Red Army) and Tuzla (Fukare- literally 'poor/penniless people'- absolutely mental, but great fun nonetheless). Both Sarajevo teams have hardcore fan groups as well, as do a couple of smaller/lower league clubs- notably Bugujno. These all help in creating great atmospheres; songs, flares and 'Poznans' (they're old news to me).
I'm a member of BHFanaticos, the main international team support group (got the tattoo and everything- I had the choice of a bulldog or a fleur-de-lys. I chose to look like a very dedicated scout, rather than a BNP voter), and go to games whenever possible. It's a much better (for me, anyway) atmosphere than sitting in an English stadium, and a totally different way of watching the game.
Alcohol is strictly banned in and around stadiums (I've had a truncheon across the knuckles for drinking a beer on the street over 1km from the handball stadium on the way to a game), and there's often a ban on lighters- matches only. I've been at a game when a schrapnel-less hand grenade (flashbang or summat) was thrown at us- it hit a fire engine parked between the supporters, and caused a fair bit of damage to it, so there is danger at some games, but you can easily avoid it if you don't want to get involved. Generally, both home and away fans will do their best to herd neutrals/foreigners away from any trouble both inside and outside the ground. However, I couldn't guarantee that would be the case in Mostar.

[BlueinBosnia]

Was a result ever announced for this?

[freshie]

City Pub- probably the closest to a 'laddish' place you'll find. Would never dream of showing night games, though, as it attracts a relatively sheik female clientele from around 7.30pm (6.30 UK time), who won't linger where football is being shown.

Are they related to our owner?

[colonel_muck]

Two fascinating posts there BiB, but come on, tell us a bit more about Mostar!

[BlueinBosnia]

Two fascinating posts there BiB, but come on, tell us a bit more about Mostar!

It's basically like Glasgow, without the rain, heroin and obesity.

[BlueinBosnia]

Looks like City never followed up on this:

http://www.mcfc.co.uk/Fans/Heart-of-the-City