FIFA Magazine
In the valley of tears

. (FIFA.com)

(FIFA.com)
The former Yugoslavia used to make waves on the world football scene. But this once-great football nation, officially known since last year as Serbia and Montenegro, has been in a rut for many years. FIFA Magazine finds out what has gone wrong in a country that discovered so many stars, but failed to qualify for either the 2002 FIFA World Cup™ or EURO 2004?

 “THE EUROPEAN BRAZILIANS”
A country with just a mere taste of success in the world of football would find it hard to cope with such setbacks, let alone Serbia and Montenegro, who, together with Croatia, were the architects of the footballing success enjoyed by the former Yugoslavia. Gone are the days when the national team were part of the cream of European football (2nd in European Championship 1960/1968; 4th in 1976) and often started World Cup finals as the dark horses. The Yugoslavians were referred to as the “European Brazilians”, twice reaching the semi-finals of the FIFA World Cup™ (1930, 1962) and finishing fifth in Italia ’90. The halcyon days of Red Star Belgrade (European Champions’ Cup winners 1991; UEFA Cup finalists 1979) and city rivals Partizan (European Champions’ Cup finalists 1966) are now but a distant memory.

The reasons behind this crisis are manifold. After the break-up of the former Yugoslavia, the new, independent states formed their own leagues. Clubs from the second or third league, even village teams, were suddenly promoted to the top flight and Serbia and Montenegro faced the same problems. The fans who used to live for games between the giants of the former Yugoslavia do not have the same passion for matches such as Red Star v Buducnost Banatski Dvor or Partizan v Zeta Golubovci. Live television coverage of top European matches merely compounds matters. Each weekend, fans in Serbia and Montenegro can enjoy free televised coverage of five or six top matches from Italy, Spain, England and France.

4,000 PLAYERS FLEE THE NEST<
The fans’ apathy and lack of interest in the domestic football scene is all the more understandable when one looks closely at the facts. Over the last ten years, some 4,000 footballers have left Serbia and Montenegro and young, up-and-coming talents are sold to clubs abroad after only a couple of seasons in the top flight. There are precious few stars lighting up modern day football in Serbia and Montenegro.

Of course, in recent years, the long-suffering people of Serbia and Montenegro have had more important things to think about than football (civil war, UN sanctions, high inflation, NATO air strikes, unemployment, low wages, etc.).

The fans’ disinterest in football is further explained by the frequent, but unproven, allegations of corruption. If the so-called experts are to be believed, thrown matches and bribed referees are part and parcel of football in Serbia and Montenegro.

efore the start of the 2003/2004 season, Dragan Dzajic, one of the best left wingers in the game in the 1960s and 1970s and the current president of Red Star Belgrade, even threatened to withdraw his club from the league if matters did not improve. His words were stinging: “Everybody knows it, but they all play dumb. ‘You let us win now, and we will let you win the second game.’ But why should we, for example, agree to two draws and squander four points? We must put an end to this cheating. Otherwise, our league will no longer make any sense.”

STOJKOVIC’S STRUGGLE
Another former Yugoslavian great, Dragan Stojkovic, has been president of the Serbia and Montenegro FA for the past two years, and he too regards the fight for a fair league championship as one of the most important objectives. “We have now solved the problems with referees. But it is not as easy to combat the ‘3 points for 3 points’ system. It is extremely difficult to prove that two clubs have discussed acting in such a manner. But if we do find evidence, we will come down heavily on offenders. We would not hesitate to throw clubs out of the league,” stressed Stojkovic.

There were also rumours of match fixing in the past, but the fans still flocked to the stadiums and Yugoslav clubs enjoyed success in European club football. The current situation in Serbia and Montenegro will only improve when the clubs become stronger and the best players are not transferred abroad so quickly. Of course, it is vital that the economy picks up so that the clubs can earn more sponsorship money and begin to compete on the international stage once more.

At the moment, clubs are selling their best players to clubs abroad merely to keep their heads above water. Partizan Belgrade, currently trained by the most-capped player in German football history, Lothar Matthäus, are perhaps the prime example of this trend. Although his team was pushing for entry into the UEFA Champions League, a feat they eventually achieved, Matthäus sold two of his best players in the middle of last season. Danko Lazovia, an U-21 striker, moved to Feyenoord in Holland, while Serbian international Zvonimir Vukic was transferred to Shaktor Donetsk in the Ukraine. Since Mateja Kezman’s move to PSV Eindhoven in 2000, Partizan had not made any transfers of note. But they simply had no choice but to sanction the transfers of Lazovia and Vukic in order to keep to their modest annual budget of EUR 4 million.

70% IS ENOUGH
You do not need to be a football expert or a financial whiz kid to see the logical conclusion – football in Serbia and Montenegro is in a self-perpetuating circle. Without good players, there cannot be good clubs. Without good clubs, there cannot be a good league. Without a strong league, there cannot be a strong national team. Even the players who shoot to prominence in the modest domestic league in Serbia and Montenegro and earn a transfer abroad often struggle to find their form. Perhaps that is the logical consequence of not having to rise to a challenge in the league back home. “Unfortunately, my players know that they only need to play to 70% of their ability in order to win most matches,” laments Matthäus.

The players (Stojkovic, Savicevic, Mijatovic, Jugovic, Mihajlovic, Djukic, Jokanovic, etc.) who impressed during the national team’s stunning return to the international scene in the late 1990s with appearances at the 1998 FIFA World Cup™ and EURO 2000 all learnt their trade in the stronger domestic league of the former Yugoslavia.

The majority of fans do not hold great hopes for the future of football in Serbia and Montenegro. For many years now, pessimists have been predicting that the country will suffer the same fate as Hungary, a former powerhouse in world football (FIFA World Cup™ runners-up 1938, 1954; nine FIFA World Cup™ appearances, most recently in 1986), but now a permanent fixture in the lower echelons of the international game. But there are those who believe that there will always be enough talented youngsters in the country, and that for that reason alone, football in Serbia and Montenegro will soon find the path that leads out of the valley of tears…

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