Something is rotten in the state of… Bosnia and Herzegovina. The country’s men’s senior volleyball national team players shared similar experiences to their female colleagues in regard to poor conditions during the Qualifiers for the 2023 CEV European Championship.
The players of the Bosnia and Herzegovina Men’s National Team are clear: they want the management of their country’s federation to resign following the carelessness about the conditions in which the governing body of Bosnian volleyball (OSBIH) left players to compete in the qualifications for the EuroVolley 2023.
The Bosnia NT member Nemanja Vidović announced on his Facebook profile what an agony he and his teammates went through recently, which reminded all of the similar story told by the country’s women’s national team players. He informed the public about incredible details related to the national team’s campaign in Qualifiers for the next continental championship.
First, as Vidović stressed, they traveled for thousands of kilometers in a bus without enough room for the entire delegation, so they had to find to way to endure the trip. Some of them used inflatable mattresses and slept on the floor of the vehicle. The setter stated that upon the squad’s return from Montenegro to Sarajevo, no one booked rooms for them in a hotel. They were lucky that the hotel had enough capacity, so they got accommodated. However, the players had to wash their jerseys and equipment by themselves as the laundry service wasn’t paid for by the OSBIH.
Then, they played the game against Switzerland on the home ground. The lighting in the hall was very poor, precisely five times weaker than required for playing. The players and staff complained and it’s being sorted out later. Vidović gave more examples of the negligence of the OSBIH towards the players. When they played in Albania and Romania, they had two matches in as many days against both opponents without being informed about it prior to their arrival. All that after traveling from one country to another for more than 22 hours. There was no money to organize rematches at home against either of them, the federation explained.
In the end, Vidović had a message for the federation, supported by his teammates: “You’re unfit to lead the federation. Resign and allow people who can and know how to bring sponsors and how to get volleyball and the federation on its feet. I’m afraid that with what you’ve been doing in the last 10 years since I’ve been playing professional volleyball, you’re just putting a nail in the coffin of volleyball in Bosnia and Herzegovina.“
