a gallic Shrug of acceptance?
**BEWARE: THIS BLOG CONTAINS GRAUITOUS USE OF YOUTUBE MONTAGES**
The UEFA President Michel Platini’s visit last week to Belgrade culminated in a press conference where the erstwhile attacking midfielder spoke positively about the possibility of a pan-balkan league which would hark back to the good-old days of Yugoslav football.
There was a time when some of the highest quality matches, possibly in terms of the standard of football and definitely in terms of the atmosphere were played out each week in the now decaying and empty stadiums of Croatia and Serbia.
Today, however, the domestic leagues of Serbia and Croatia resemble something more like the limp Scottish Premier League, two teams dominating, and only those two teams able to draw any kind of attendance worth singing about- save for the bi-annual derby matches (Red Star vs. Partizan in Serbia, Dinamo Zagreb vs. Hajduk Split in Croatia).
Exactly how many national leagues would be invited or interested to join is as yet unclear. Some would fear the loss of their few big teams from the national leagues would bring about these leagues’ deaths… yet the truth is it would only provide an alternative from the undead zombie competitions which stumble on at the moment.
The heyday of the Yugoslav football should have, would have come in 1992, in the European Championships remembered by most as the triumph of the outsiders, Denmark, who only qualified after Yugoslavia were ejected due to civil war which was flaring that Summer. The combined Yugoslav Squad would, had all the players been willing to take part, have been amongst the most impressive ever to play at the championships.
What follows is a list of just some of the more famous names and where they went on to play after 1991.
Up front the Macedonian Darko Pancev, (Golden Boot winner, later of Inter Milan), would probably have started, partnered by either Mijatovic (Valencia, Real Madrid), Suker ( Top Scorer at World Cup 98, Real Madrid) or Alen Boksic (Marseille, Lazio, Juventus).
The Coach would face the challenge of squeezing into the midfield Dragan Stojkovic (Marseille), Dejan Savicevic (A.C Milan) (seen here in an x-rated interview in Croatia) , Robert Prosinecki (Real Madrid and Barcelona), Zvonimir Boban (10 years at A.C Milan), Srejko Katanec (The token Slovenian, later Stuttgart and Sampdoria) and Vladimir Jugovic (Lazio, Juventus, Atletico Madrid).
This ahead of a defence including Robert Jarni (Juventus, Real Madrid) and the greatest free kick taker of all time (apart from Juninho of Lyon), Sinisa Mihajlovic (Lazio, Inter Milan).
Yikes.
Though many of this team were young, a number of them had winning experience, having made up the core of the Red Star Belgrade team which won the European and World Club Cups in 1991.
There is no chance of that occuring again under the current system. The best players from the best clubs in Eastern Europe now leave so soon the clubs are never able to form a strong side and make any impact in continental club competitions. More strong teams means more good games, means higher attendances bringing more money. A pan balkan league would probably rival the portugese and French leagues in it’s strength.
The benefits are significant, but the risk of this proposal is perhaps greater. Scenes such as these when Partizan Belgrade travelled to Zrinjski Mostar, a team representing the Croatian half of Mostar are strongly reminiscent of the riots in 1990, when Boban made himself a Croatian hero when he flying-kicked a Yugoslav policeman and did his bit to accelerate the disintegration of Yugoslavia.
Of course Yugoslavia cannot fall apart again, though issues remain unresolved and wounds unhealed in much of Bosnia- though perhaps now the league would be as much about reconciliation and re-opening divisions. Countries united by a virtually identical language would outgrow their fractious (to say the least) past and find a common ground on which to co-operate through sport and appreciate one another once more.
