We Do Adventure

If you watch the video you'll see a guy lighting a flare in celebration moments after Bosnia and Herzegovina qualified for the FIFA World Cup in Brazil. For him it was a surreal evening. I don't want to speak for anyone else, but I know how he felt because he told me. I also remember him once telling me: you don't understand, England always qualify for tournaments. English fans will know that qualification, when it happens, doesn't often come without some drama. But the point stands, England expect to qualify, and more often than not they do. Tonight is truly historic for Bosnia and Herzegovina. They have never qualified for a major tournament as an independent nation...until now. They made the playoffs for the last Euros and World Cup, losing to France and Portugal. We heard people try to offset the double disappointment with conspiracy theories as to why they came so close but remained so far. This time those are just not necessary. There will be in Brazil. Leg...

Let's pile on the the cliches; we are talking football after all. That game of two halves. The one where things always seem to be up there and probably at the end of the day! It's been described as a game that is't a matter of life and death, it's more important than that. Maybe it is, probably it isn't. Nevertheless, these days, many a manager mangles words like a would be philosopher while the stars of the pitch are schooled to deliver non-committal, controversy-free press conference performances a politician would be proud of. Taking their cue, this post will touch a little on the political and philosophical, which I hope makes up for the lack of anything more important. Tonight I played a little game. I typed 'Bosnia news' into Google, determined that I would blog about the first link it served up under its 'News for Bosnia news' heading. That was this link from ESPN Soccernet. I was the story I expected. Although I've been aware of th...

We've just spent a few days up a mountain running a summer camp for a group of young people who are involved in Novi Most's centres in Mostar and Capljina. The previous post mentioned how we'd been telling visitors about how Novi Most is successfully bringing together young people from across Bosnia and Herzegovina's different ethnic groups. The camp was proof again that this is neither propoganda or wishful thinking; it is a reality. I could pick on a number of encouraging incidents to illustrate this but perhaps the most humourous came this morning when a young lad pulled up his sleeve to show me some freshly penned inscriptions. Football fans will recognise that you would not normally expect to see "TM87", "Hajduk" and "Partizan" all 'tattooed' on the same forearm. I know one boy writing the name of big teams from Bosnia, Croatia and Serbia on his arm doesn't necessarily constitute a reconciliation revolution but it does demo...

'It's been two weeks since you blogged' said Rowan yesterday. So, duly shamed, here I am again! After a couple of days of rain, the sun came out this evening. As it has been a similarly unacceptable time since I posted a video on our WeDoAdventure YouTube channel I grabbed the camera while I was driving home to record this short update. Perhaps this is cheating, but it is better than nothing! Sadly, I think I've missed the moment for a couple of good football related posts, although Saturday's Champion's League Final may give me the chance to make ammends.

I should probably be writing more here but getting and at 4am and still getting up at the normal time this morning have got the better of me. We were there last night. It was a good game, obviously the wrong result from our point of view, but as English people we've hasd some experience of losing to Portugal after having a player sent off! I'll leave the video to show the ups and downs of the day. WARNING: The fans behind us swore throughout the match. I won't claim to have understood the half of what they said. To those of you who will understand, I apologise that some of their comments will undoubtedly have ended up being audible in this video.

A friend spoke to me this morning in urgent tones: we have a problem, if there’s any violence they won’t let us in! We were just about to start a rehearsal, which although always loud has never ended in violence. It took me a minute to realise he was talking about football; specifically about Bosnia and Herzegovina’s World Cup qualifier against Estonia. A fatal shooting at a domestic fixture last weekend has clearly put the national team and its fans under special scrutiny. All this comes at a time when Bosnia and Herzegovina have a very real chance of making it to South Africa next year. For a nation whose Premier League is played by part-timers this is no small achievement. That it might be snatched away by some mindless crowd violence is a tragedy that it’s sadly all too easy to understand as an English football fan. And so on the day President Obama has been controversially announced as the latest Nobel Peace Prize winner I would like to suggest that he sprinkle a little bit of th...

We were in Sarajevo at the weekend. It’s a city famous for a few things but possibly its most influential export was the gun shot that triggered the First World War. Today you’d be forgiven for not noticing where it happened; a discreet plaque on the wall of a small museum marks the fateful spot. I know where it is and it makes me think every time I drive past it. But after this trip I was left with more than the usual food for thought. I drove back into Mostar with the city doing an impression of a ghost town because of the local football derby. We hardly saw any people, let alone any violence; most of the people loitering on the streets were police leaning on riot shields. However, up the road in Siroki Brijeg a football match didn’t happen because violence erupted beforehand and a FC Sarajevo fan was shot dead . We got this news the same time as the report of another close-to-home incident. We’d been staying in Grbavica, a suburb of Sarajevo, on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. On Mon...

Tonight we were working it Klub. It was a relatively quiet night because many of the young people who would usually be there are at a camp this week. However, I doubt it was quiet across town as Zrinjski Mostar beat Slovan Bratislava one nil. Yes, Champions League Qualifying football happening just around the corner, with tickets less than a fiver, and we couldn’t go! It was Rowan’s birthday today. She is not adverse to a bit of football but I do think if we had been free tonight we wouldn’t have spent it in Bijeli Brieg Stadium. But maybe next time!

The English Premier League wrapped up its season this afternoon. With Manchester United already crowned champions the fixture list left fans fixating over who would or wouldn’t avoid the drop. If Newcastle United have proved one thing this season it is that ‘Messiah’ is a title perhaps best not given to a mere mortal, even one (or two or three!) in possession of seemingly supernatural footballing skills. But my purpose is not to dwell on misplaced faith, or even to focus on English football. The news from last night in Mostar is that HŠK Zrinjski are now champions of the Premijer Liga BiH. Believe it or not but that means we could be watching Champion’s League football in Mostar for approximately the price of a pie at Old Trafford! FK Velež, Mostar’s older team, were not relegated as had looked likely. And the riot police we saw sitting at the end of our street did not appear busy, although they must have been sweltering in their Robocop style body armour. All in, I think that makes fo...

Tonight I saw a very sorry sight as I drove home: dozens of very bored riot police. One imagines that someone who dresses up in body armour, complete with helmet, baton and shield, does so because there’s something about crowd control that appeals to them. How disappointing for them if the only people loitering with intent are their colleagues. Local radio was warning people to stay off the streets after 4pm today. Dnevni List, one the popular dailies in Bosnia Herzegovina, said Mostar was ‘under siege’, ‘bracing itself’ for the local derby that took place today, and the ethnic tensions it was expected to exacerbate. Maybe they were right, but I went about my day as normal and have nothing unusual to report except what you’ve read already. That and I walked past a very drunk man trying to impress three ladies sitting outside a cafe. It was the old-school walkman he was clutching in his right hand – presumably a counterbalance for the large bottle of Sarajevsko in his left – that really...

Some footballers suffer what you could call ‘the curse of the classic goal’. What do I mean by that? They score a goal so timely and technically superb it sets a standard they will never again equal; it becomes a monument in whose shadow they play out the rest of their career. Tonight I’m reminded of David Platt and his stroke of brilliance in the last minute of extra time for England against Belgium back Italia 90. It’s fair to say he probably never matched that moment. I’m reminded by the blaring horns, revving engines and enthusiastic singing and chanting outside that undoubtedly means Bosnia Herzegovina have beaten Belgium twice within the last week, on what could quite possibly be the road to their first Fifa World Cup. Tonight’s 2-1 triumph added to a 4-2 victory on Saturday would itself provide a comfortable goal difference but given that they dispatched Estonia 7-0 they share the same goal difference as Spain, who top the group, although Bosnia Herzegovina have scored five more...

What a disaster! I had dug through my case of thing-packed-just-on-case and so was well prepared for tonight’s trip to an indoor football pitch. I pulled on my retro, red ‘Three Lions’ shirt. It’s not normally paired with black sock and shorts but nevertheless it wasn’t a bad look. Until play started that is. In many ways I did England proud, or at least continued a long tradition of overpromising and under-delivering. I can't report one good tackle or pass, let alone a decent shot on goal that I made. I could play the blame game but it wouldn’t help. After all tonight was just play for the sake of play, with a generous side order of theatrics for the benefit of those on the sidelines. But as a trip that was intended for fifteen had snowballed to nearer thirty the fact it passed off without accident or incident must be seen as something of a success!